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V 



IN THE DAYS OF GOLDSMITH 



LIVES oj GREAT WRITERS 

By TUDOR JENKS 

Each i2mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Trice $i.oo net 
With Portraits, Bibliographies, and Comments 

IN THE DAYS OF CHAUCER 

The story of his life and times, with an introduction 
by Dr. Hamilton Wright Mabie. The author has 
pictured Chaucer, the man and the poet, with such 
surroundings and scenes as will convey a clear impres- 
sion of his daily life. A life story that gives a vivid 
picture of Chaucer the man and a realization of the 
times may well form the best introduction or accom- 
paniment to an acquaintance with his work. 

IN THE DAYS OF MILTON 

The contrast between Puritan and Cavalier life is 
vividly pictured at the outset of Mr. Jenks's charming 
life story of Milton and Milton's England. The 
sketches of varying life, manners, and the spirit of the 
times show at once the fresh, broad, and helpful 
spirit in which Milton's life and times are placed 
before us. 

IN THE DAYS OF SHAKESPEARE 

This story of Shakespeare's life is told with a fresh- 
ness and personal quahty which make the book wholly 
individual. There is also a helpful explanation of 
some of the principal plays, and other comments for 
the practical guidance of student and reader. 

IN THE DAYS OF SCOTT 

This charming story of the life of the great novelist 
gives a picture of Scott and his work that is wholly 
exceptional in its succinctness and personal interest. 
He outlines the surroundings, influences, and condi- 
tions of one of the most interesting periods in the 
history of English hterature. 

IN THE DAYS OF GOLDSMITH 

Every one knows "The Vicar of Wakefield," but 
the variety and personal interest of the author's life 
and times are of almost equal value. Mr. Jenks has 
sketched a series of personal pictures which show 
phases of 18th century England and the literary 
Bohemia of the time with the vividness of graphic 
story-telling. 

A. S. BARNES & COMPANY 

NEW YORK 




SKETCH OF OLIVER GOLDSMITH 

By Sir Joshua Reynolds 



IN THE DAYS OF 





By 
TUDOR JENKS 

>l 
AUTHOR OF "IN THE DAYS OF CHAUCER," "IN THE DAYS 
OF SHAKESPEARE," "IN THE DAYS OF MILTON/' 
"IN THE DAYS OF SCOTT," ETC. 




New York 

A. S. BARNES & COMPANY 

1907 



T'RM'I? 



LIBSARY of CONGRESS 

Two Copies Received 

MAR 9 1907 

/. CopyriiTht Entry 
fcMr^ HffOy 

/tu,ss A XXc, No. 

COPY B. 



Copyright, 1907, by 

A. S. BARNES & COMPANY 

All rights reserved 



Published, February, 1907 



OS 



i 



..y 



V PREFACE 

Goldsmith is one of the authors who has 
suffered at the hands of his biographers. 
In the attempt to make his Hfe picturesque 
and interesting there has been the tempta- 
tion to place too much emphasis upon 
little anecdotes relating to the author's 
eccentricities and the more absurd events 
of his career. This is not due entirely 
to choice on the part of his chroniclers. 
Much of the material for his life has come 
from the pages of BoswelFs "Johnson," 
or similar anecdotal sources. There is no 
doubt that the essence of these anecdotes 
is true, but in making up Goldsmith's 
life they have been given far too great 
prominence. Right proportion would 
greatly reduce them in the perspective of 
his career. 

Forster's Life, while attempting to do 
justice, contains too large an element of 

V 



Preface 

explanations and excuses derived from 
the author's imagination. Perhaps the 
fairest of the biographers are WiUiam 
Black and Washington Irving. Delightful 
to read, because of its beautiful style, 
the life by the American author is also as 
conscientious as Irving's work invariably is. 
In this volume the attempt has been 
to treat Goldsmith not only as an odd 
genius v^ho amused the habitues of "The 
Club," but also as one who won and held 
the friendship of England's brightest minds. 
In speaking of the events of his life, it has 
not been forgotten how well the vogue of 
Dr. Johnson's Life has made these known 
to modern readers, nor how much of the 
life of the time still lives in our memories 
because of its nearness* Stress has been 
laid, therefore, upon the more public 
events and upon the literary history of the 
period, since it was the era when first a 
large reading public was created in Eng- 
land. It will be seen that the author of 

vi 



Preface 

this book feels that Goldsmith was entitled 
to more respect as a man than is usually 
credited him. This feeling has perhaps 
led him to criticise somewhat freely the 
interpretations put by other biographers 
upon events in Goldsmith's career. He 
has also protested against the too common 
practice of assuming that because a great 
writer like Goldsmith uses in his work the 
experiences of his life, that the work 
therefore may be relied upon as material 
for his biography. 

He hopes that his own view of Goldsmith 
may at least incline his readers to make 
a comparative study of the biographies 
before trusting any one of them to the 
exclusion of the rest. 



vu 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Page 

/. Goldsmith's Earliest Surround- 
ings I 



II. Oliver s College Career 

III, Seeking a Profession . 

IV. His Unsettled Tears . 
V. Student and Wander Days 

VI. Seeking a Livelihood . 
VII. The London to Which Gold- 
smith Came 
VIII. Establishing as a Writer . 
IX. He Enters Literary Society 

X. Beginning of Literary Success 15 1 
XI. The ''Vicar'' and the First 

Play 165 

XII. Events Contemporary with the 

''Vicar" 180 



19 
37 

53 

68 

86 

102 
122 

137 



Table of Contents 

Page 

XIII. Among Prosperous Folk . - 195 

XIV. The Poet and Playwright . 210 

XV. In His Last Tears . . . 225 

XVI. The Man and His Works . 241 

Appendix 

Chief Dates Relating to Gold- 
smith's Life and Works . .257 
A Brief Bibliography . . . . 267 
Index . 269 



CHAPTER I 



goldsmith's earliest surroundings 



The birthplace of Oliver Goldsmith 
was in a village so small and so remote 
from civilization that one of his biog- 
raphers has called it "the midmost soli- 
tude of Ireland." His father, no doubt, 
was looked upon as quite a magnate by 
the inhabitants of the little huts surround- 
ing his more pretentious home, and Oliver 
lived better and had more advantages 
than any of his little playfellows. 

His father was the Protestant clergy- 
man in the small Irish parish, and was 
one of a line of "Goldsmiths" in the 
same profession. His mother, Ann Jones, 
came of people of the same sort, a Pro- 
testant clerical family, though her father 
was master of a school, and from this 

I 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

schoolmaster and clergyman Goldsmith 
derived his name of Oliver, although he 
attempted to maintain that the name had 
come into his family owing to some con- 
nection with Oliver Cromwell. 

The poet's birthday was the tenth of 
November, 1728, and his birthplace was 
the village of Pallas, or Pallasmore. Speak- 
ing generally, it may be said that this lo- 
cality is about the middle of the country. 

The family consisted of eight children. 
Goldsmith being the second son, and 
there being three girls. 

William Howitt tells us that the village 
of Goldsmith's birth was a mere cluster 
of two or three buildings that in Ireland 
were called farmhouses, but would in 
England be considered no more than 
huts. The country was one of small 
farm-holdings, flat, with very few trees, 
but fairly well watered. The highways 
were hardly more than narrow, stony 
lanes, running amid the farm lands — 
potato and wheat fields. 

In this little hamlet Goldsmith passed 

Z 



Earliest Surroundings 

only his infancy, for, two years after 
Oliver's birth, his father, by the death of 
his wife's uncle, succeeded to the rectory 
of Kilkenny West, and removed to Lissoy. 

In later years, however. Goldsmith was 
accustomed to go now and then to Pallas, 
because it remained the home of his elder 
brother, Henry, between whom and the 
poet always existed a warm affection. 

Something of the nature of the people 
hereabouts may be gathered from the 
popular tradition recorded in Irving's 
"Life of Goldsmith," that the destruc- 
tion of the house in which the poet was 
born was occasioned by a huge, misshapen 
hobgoblin, whose custom it was in later 
years "to bestride the house every even- 
ing with an immense pair of jack-boots, 
which, in his efforts at hard riding he 
would thrust through the roof, kicking to 
pieces all the work of the preceding day" 
— that is, the work of those who had been 
hired to keep the house in repair. 

The home in Lissoy comprised a decent 
house and the farm of seventy acres on 

3 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

the outskirts of the village, and it is this 
place that really was remembered always 
by Oliver as the scene of his boyhood 
days. Here, too, began his schooling. 

Accounts of the village of Lissoy seem 
contradictory. Some of the poet's biog- 
raphers represent it as a quaint, pretty 
place; others speak of it as a few com- 
mon cottages by the roadside, in an un- 
interesting country. The earliest de- 
scription we have was written in 1790, 
and speaks of the home as " a snug farm- 
house in view of the high-road, to which 
a straight highway leads, with double rows 
of ash-trees," and the clergyman who thus 
speaks of the house tells us that in the 
neighborhood, within a narrow circuit, are 
to be found many of the features later 
introduced by Goldsmith into his "De- 
serted Village." 

Behind the house was an orchard, of 
which some traces remain, but the home 
itself long ago fell into ruins — though 
Howitt mentions that the public house 
was in existence in his day, half a century 

4 



Earliest Surroundings 

ago, having been rebuilt by a gentleman 
who, as an admirer of Goldsmith, sought 
to restore Lissoy to the features of Au- 
burn. But, in commenting upon this, 
Howitt insists that Goldsmith made no 
scruple in describing in his poem the 
characteristics of an English ale-house, 
rather than those of the inn of so poor a 
village as was Lissoy in his early years. 

In order to form an idea of Goldsmith's 
boyhood days, we have only to consult 
the pictures given in his own writings, 
for it was his custom to weave into his 
works reminiscences of his own life with 
more freedom than has been done by 
almost any other writer. We may thus 
confidently ascribe to his father many of 
the traits of the good Vicar of Wakefield, 
Dr. Primrose, and also supplement these 
by such details as he gives us in his "Man 
in Black," who is believed to be no other 
than Goldsmith himself, and who de- 
scribes his father at length. Briefly, con- 
sulting these two portraits from the hand 
of Goldsmith himself, we may recognize 

5 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

in his father a pious, unworldly, kindly 
gentleman of high principles, who lived 
the "simple life" and preached its princi- 
ples nearly two centuries before moderns 
had discovered it. 

Perhaps the most important sentence 
in Goldsmith's description, when con- 
sidered in the light of his own career, is 
this: "He wound us up to be mere ma- 
chines of pity, and rendered us incapable 
of withstanding the slightest impulse made 
either by re^ or fictitious distress." 

It is to such teaching that the thriftless 
ways of Goldsmith himself may be traced, 
but it is a curious commentary upon mod- 
ern "civilization that a Christian clergy- 
man should be looked upon as more or 
less of a simpleton because he brought 
up his children to put into practice the 
Christian virtues. 

For the oldest son, Henry Goldsmith, 
the father provided the best education, by 
dint of the severest sacrifice, that he could 
aff'ord. Oliver was seven years younger. 
His education began at the hands of one 

6 



Earliest Surroundings 

of those good old motherly dames, "found 
in every village, v^ho cluck together the 
whole callow brood of the neighborhood, 
to teach them their letters, and keep them 
out of harm's way," as Irving beauti- 
fully puts it. 

This first teacher was a kinswoman, 
known to us by her married name of 
Elizabeth Delap. She lived to be nearly 
ninety, and to boast of her beginning the 
poet's education. She reported him as a 
stupid boy, but this is a very frequent ver- 
dict in the case of boys whose genius 
makes them different from their fellows, 
and puts them beyond the ken of common 
people. Such boys, after a number of 
attempts to make themselves understood, 
are likely to keep their imaginings to them- 
selves, and thus to pass for insensate 
blockheads. 

In 1734, when Oliver was six years old, 
he passed on to a school of higher grade 
kept by Thomas (commonly known as 
Paddy) Byrne. He was a veteran soldier, 
fond of amusing and instructing boys by 

7 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

talking of his wanderings in foreign lands, 
and well acquainted with Irish ballads, 
legends, and fairy stories. He was also 
deeply versed in the exploits of the Irish 
outlaws, whose adventures lost nothing 
in their telling by the imaginative school- 
master. 

The training of Goldsmith's mind in 
early boyhood must in many respects 
have resembled that of Scott, for both 
were brought into immediate contact with 
the folk-lore that is the very soil to nour- 
ish poetry. Certainly it seems true that 
the greatest poets of the United King- 
dom were nourished upon the folk-lore of 
their native countries; that the minds of 
Scott and Burns, of Goldsmith, and of 
Shakespeare, received their earliest bent 
through an acquaintance with the folk- 
stories of the countryside. 

More important still than these talents 
was Byrne's love for versifying, which 
showed itself in rhymed translations from 
Virgil. Naturally enough, Goldsmith got 
the trick of rhyming, and began to scribble 



Earliest Surroundings 

verses, most of which he destroyed. A 
few, however, were read by his mother 
and induced her to beg that Ohver might 
have an education worthy of his talents, 
an intervention that prevented the boy 
from being apprenticed to some trade. 

Under Byrne's teaching Goldsmith re- 
mained until he was nine years old. Then 
an attack of smallpox left permanent 
traces on the boy's face, and, possibly for 
the purpose of putting the disfigured lad 
among strangers for a time, he was sent 
to a school at Elphin for a year or two, 
and boarded with his uncle. 

The disease that so greatly marked Gold- 
smith's face was not at all an unusual hap- 
pening in those days. It was looked upon 
as almost a necessary incident of life, and 
whether one's complexion were utterly 
ruined by it or not rested wholly in the 
hands of a capricious Providence. It was 
a great many years before the accidental 
occurrence of several cases of smallpox 
in a dark cave where certain soldiers were 
lodged, proved that the pitting was due 

9 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

to the action of light — a discovery that in 
our own times has been again made public 
by the studies and experiments of Finsen, 
the Swede. 

It was at this school in Roscommon 
that Goldsmith suffered from hazing, a 
brutality that has even lasted into our own 
time. 

In 1739 he returned to Athlone, a town 
but five miles from his home, where for 
two years he attended a school kept by 
the Reverend Mr. Campbell. Four years 
at a school in Edge worth stown finished 
his school education, when he was about 
seventeen. 

It was while he was living with his uncle, 
John Goldsmith, that Oliver made a re- 
tort that has often been quoted in telling 
the story of his life. One Cummings, 
playing the fiddle to Oliver's dancing, 
said, jokingly, that Goldsmith was his 
"little iEsop," likening him to the de- 
formed Greek fabulist. Goldsmith at once 
made the rhymed repartee: 

Our herald hath proclaimed this saying: 

"See Aesop dancing, and his monkey playing," 

10 



Earliest Surroundings 

which, If not a remarkable epigram, was 
certainly proof of unusual brightness and 
quickness in a child of nine or ten. 

At all events, the accounts agree that 
this and other signs of intellectual power 
caused his family to decide upon giving 
him as good an education as their slender 
resources could manage. 

If the stories regarding his treatment 
by his schoolfellows are authentic, if his 
strong physiognomy and his disfigurement 
by disease made him the butt of his school- 
fellows, the matter is of interest only as 
showing the complete lack of kindly hu- 
man feeling among the youngsters of the 
time. It is not so very long before that 
poor prisoners were pelted and derided as 
a matter of course, by passing citizens; 
that unnumbered throngs pressed to see 
the execution of criminals; that the suf- 
ferings of the poor, the young, and of pris- 
oners in battles excited no sympathy 
whatever among their fellow beings. There 
is no doubt that there still remain traces 
of the same feeling among the people of to- 

II 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

day, but there is likewise an undoubted 
improvement. 

With his nearly unequalled power of 
bringing before the reader the main char- 
acteristics of the past, Charles Reade, in 
"The Wandering Heir," has reconstructed 
for us a little drama that makes these old 
days in Ireland live again. Reade's story 
begins in the year 1726, two years before 
the date of Goldsmith's birth, but the 
scene he describes might well have been 
drawn from Goldsmith's school-days. 

The little schoolroom is crowded with 
the "boding tremblers," hoping to escape 
the notice of the harsh master prowling 
about the room with a long ruler held like 
a weapon, and meant for the same office. 
In winter, the room was kept a little 
warmer than freezing by a smouldering 
fire upon the hearthstone, and on a windy 
day the smoke whirled about the room 
almost as if it had quarreled with the 
chimney-flue. 

The boys in such a school are described 
as dressed in long frieze coats, short 

12 



Earliest Surroundings 

breeches laced at the knee, "clouted shoes 
tied with strips of raw neat-skin, and 
slovenly caubeens," or caps. 

Later, Reade gives a description of 
school-boy cruelty that, it is to be feared, 
would likewise apply not only to Gold- 
smith's time, but almost to the boy him- 
self, for he tells how one little victim is 
pinched, gibed, poked, and ducked. 

Professor Masson sums up the reports 
of Goldsmith during these early days as 
showing him "a shy, thick, awkward boy, 
a butt, and little better than a fool." At 
the same time, he was good-natured, 
friendly, generous, and athletic, a leader 
in school mischief-making. He appre- 
ciated the literary side of his classical 
studies, translating well, and delighting 
in the Roman legends as told by Livy. 

Professor Masson also says, with excel- 
lent discretion, that Dr. Johnson's remark 
that Goldsmith "flowered late," is not 
justified by the accounts of his early life, 
which show him virtually the same in boy- 
hood that we see him in manhood. 

13 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

We may look upon this age of seventeen, 
the time of his leaving the school at Edge- 
worthstown, as the end of his boyhood, 
for now had come the time when, in decid- 
ing whether he was to enter the University, 
the nature of his future vocation must be 
determined. 

It was on the occasion of his returning 
for the last time from Edgeworthstown 
that Oliver was befooled into the experi- 
ence that afterwards formed the founda- 
tion of his play, "She Stoops to Conquer." 
Riding on horseback over the rough roads, 
he came at nightfall to the little town, 
Ardagh. When he inquired for "the best 
house in the place," a village wag saw 
the chance to play upon his importance, 
and directed him to the home of the mag- 
nate of the place, a Mr. Featherstone, 
where Goldsmith put up for the night, 
supposing himself to be in an inn, and 
acting accordingly, as is admirably told 
in Irving's life of the poet. 

It is usual among matter-of-fact, every- 
day people, to regard such an incident as 

14 



Earliest Surroundings 

this as showing a lack of common-sense 
in the victim of the mistake. To them 
the blunder would not be possible owing 
to the complete occupation of their minds 
with the surface of things. They are 
shrewd as regards practical matters, sim- 
ply because their minds are free to deal 
with them. A deep scholar is more likely 
to be absent-minded and to make mistakes 
in consequence, than is the shrewd, prac- 
tical, every-day man of half his capacity. 
To a mind like Goldsmith's, the world 
would be full of strange marvels and in- 
consistencies, and small incongruities 
would fail to attract his attention, where 
a narrower-minded man would be struck 
with them at once. To the latter type, 
an innkeeper and his family would be in 
accordance with certain expectations, pre- 
conceived notions; Goldsmith would 
know that there was no necessary con- 
nection between a man's occupation and 
his character, and would therefore not 
perceive an incongruity. 

It was Oliver's misfortune that just 
about as his family were to provide for 

15 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

means for his University education, a hap- 
pening entirely unconnected with him- 
self threatened to defeat the whole project. 
Henry Goldsmith, the elder brother, was 
completing his course in college with 
credit. Apparently to increase his re- 
sources he had been tutoring a young man 
named Daniel Hodson, and an affection 
having sprung up between Hodson and 
Catherine Goldsmith, Oliver's elder sister, 
there seems to have been some com- 
plaint or hint on the part of the young 
man's family that the Goldsmiths had 
sought the match in the hope of worldly 
benefit. In order to disprove this motive 
the father of the young lady made an en- 
gagement, in 1744, to pay four hundred 
pounds as her marriage portion, an amount 
that could be raised only by pledging vir- 
tually all the family resources. 

All idea of putting Oliver in college 
upon the same footing with his brother 
Henry — ^that is, as a "pensioner" — had 
to be abandoned, and it was proposed 
that he should go as a "poor scholar," or 

16 



Earliest Surroundings 

sizar, which meant that the boy must wear 
a distinctive costume and must render 
certain menial services in return for his 
tuition. Oliver's objection made him de- 
clare that he would rather learn a trade, 
but his reluctance was overcome by his 
uncle Contarine — the Reverend Thomas 
Contarine — ^who had frequently invited 
Oliver to his house. Having been a sizar 
himself, he persuaded Oliver to enter col- 
lege in the same capacity, and, on the 
eleventh of June, 1745, Goldsmith was 
admitted at Trinity College, Dublin. 

Howitt tells us that during his school- 
days, Oliver Goldsmith had made the ac- 
quaintance with the last of the "ancient 
Irish bards," the popular poet, Turlogh 
O'Carolan. After the fashion of old times, 
O'Carolan, who was blind, wandered 
about Connaught, a guest among the old 
families, singing his songs to the sound 
of his harp. Like other minstrels, he won 
his welcome by ballads in praise of the 
members of his hosts' families. 

Another native poet with whom Gold- 
smith had some acquaintance, was Law- 

17 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

rence Whyte, whose style was more mod^ 
ern than that of O'Carolan, and may pos- 
sibly have given Goldsmith hints for his 
own descriptive poems. Whyte's verses 
recount the misfortunes of the peasantry 
and deplore the absenteeism of landlords, 
showing that even a quarter of a century 
before Goldsmith's time, the Irish were 
complaining of the evils that have not 
ceased in our own day. Many of his 
lines, though less poetic, are in harmony 
with the tone of "The Deserted Village." 



i8 



CHAPTER II 



Oliver's college career 



One feels, in reading the "Lives of 
Goldsmith" that he was always the target 
for misfortune. Although there had been 
nothing cheering about his school-days, 
yet they had been relieved by the boy's 
love for athletic sports and by his enjoy- 
ment of the old ballads and legends of the 
veteran, his schoolmaster. 

When he entered Trinity College, it 
would seem that it was enough to destroy 
his happiness that he had lost all claims to 
good looks, was never brilliant as a scholar, 
made no impression in conversation, and 
was anything but graceful. But, in addi- 
tion, fate, by diminishing the resources 
of the family, had insured that his costume 
and his position in the college world should 

19 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

bring him the contempt or neglect of his 
associates. 

His biographers have taken pains to 
tell us that Burke remembered in after 
days that he was at college with Gold- 
smith, but the very terms in which they 
inform us of this fact show that the Irish- 
man, whom they consider greater, had not 
the slightest interest in his college-mate. 
The biographers themselves seem blind 
to the superior claims of Goldsmith to 
the world's notice. It is of far less impor- 
tance to us what was Burke's impression 
of Goldsmith than the reverse, in just so 
far as the mind of the poet is greater than 
that of the philosophical politician. 

Then, too, in commenting upon Gold- 
smith's sufferings as a sizar, the varying 
opinions of the biographers awaken inter- 
esting reflections. An American reader 
has little sympathy with the views of any 
until he comes to those of Irving, whose 
genuine democracy finds some expression 
in exposing the evils of the system, as fol- 
lows: "We can conceive nothing more 

20 



Oliver s College Career 

odious and ill-judged than these distinc- 
tions, which attached the idea of degrada- 
tion to poverty, and placed the indigent 
youth of merit below the worthless minion 
of fortune." 

Even Irving's point of view does not 
seem entirely philosophical. There is 
nothing essentially base or degrading in 
any of the marks that distinguished a 
sizar or in the tasks he was expected to 
perform. It should be utterly indifferent 
to a scholar, except as a matter of employ- 
ment of time, whether he waits at table or 
is waited upon; and to the eye of the man 
of wisdom there can be no degradation in 
even "a coarse black gown without 
sleeves." 

So far as there was suffering caused to 
Oliver Goldsmith, it sprang from the 
snobbishness and unkindness of his col- 
lege-mates. Goldsmith himself never 
minded the mere fact of poverty, as is 
shown by his vagabondage. It was only 
the unkindness of his fellow beings that 
caused him, many years later, to advise 

21 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

his brother by no means to send his son 
to college as sizar. 

Goldsmith's days at college yield noth- 
ing of moment to reward investigation. 
We hear of him as ** lounging about the 
college gates" — ^which probably means 
no more than that he found the live v^orld 
more interesting than his books. That 
this was not due to his stupidity, but 
rather to the wrong methods of education, 
we learn from his own claim that no one 
of his college-mates could more readily 
than he put an ode of Horace into English 
verse. This, which has been for so many 
years recognized in the classical world 
as a crux of scholarship, seems to us 
probably a true statement; and if it be 
true, it is equivalent to saying that, tested 
by the translation of a poem into poetry 
again. Goldsmith was as good a Latinist 
and humanist as any of the scholars. 

Like Milton, and no doubt for the 
same reason, Goldsmith had trouble with 
his tutor. Men of independent thinking, 
especially if they are outspoken, as we 

22 



Oliver s College Career 

know both Milton and Goldsmith were, 
are certain to rasp the feelings of pedants, 
and the pedant's argument against those 
who rebel against the ipse dixit has always 
been the rod. As Milton has said to have 
been beaten and to have left Cambridge, 
so we are told that Goldsmith was con- 
tinually bullied and tormented by his 
tutor; but he did not leave college until 
after an escapade that seems to have 
deserved severe punishment. This took 
place later in his course. Irving tells us 
that the cause of Goldsmith's distaste 
for the severer studies may probably be 
found in his natural indolence and his 
love of convivial pleasures. 

As to his indolence, that is the name 
given to his neglect of a certain class of 
studies. That the mind of Goldsmith 
was ever truly indolent is impossible. The 
works of a great mind in literature are 
never happy accidents. In one way or 
another the wealth of thought that is 
poured into the pages of a poet or novelist 
must be acquired through better seeing 

23 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

and better thinking than that of other 
men. Goldsmith tells us, in speaking of 
college studies: "I was a lover of mirth, 
good-humor, and even sometimes of fun, 
from my childhood," which is no more 
than saying that he had a taste for the 
lighter and higher sides of life from his 
boyhood. 

In later life he said: "I would compare 
the man whose youth has been thus passed 
in the tranquillity of dispassionate pru- 
dence, to liquors that never ferment, and, 
consequently, continue always muddy." 
The cut-and-dried college course might, 
in accidental cases, produce a worthy 
teacher or a repeater of conventional 
learning, but the making of a Goldsmith 
is beyond the attainment of any curri- 
culum. 

To add to Goldsmith's troubles, two 
years after he entered college came the 
death of his father, leaving the family little 
or nothing. What little there was, the 
mother needed; and trifling as his father's 
help had been, the lack of it was sorely 



Oliver s College Career 

missed. The kind Uncle Contarine, who 
had originally encouraged Oliver's going 
to college, now came forward to lend what 
aid he could, and Oliver now and then 
borrowed from class-mates little richer 
than himself. He is said to have pawned 
clothing, and even his books, to raise money, 
and was glad enough when he discovered 
that he could sell for five shillings each 
ballad suitable for street singers. 

We are told, as if it was something re- 
markable, that he took pleasure in listening 
to the singing of these songs, as himself 
unknown, he stood watching the street 
ballad-singers; but it is doubtful whether 
any author remains indifferent to his own 
work or neglects an opportunity of judg- 
ing its effect upon others. 

About the same time we are told that 
Burke was distinguishing himself in the 
debates carried on in a literary club for 
the purpose of exercise in literary com- 
position. Few who give the matter seri- 
ous thought will deny that of the two 
Goldsmith was securing the more valuable 

25 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

training in literary composition, though 
the conventional standards would consider 
the occupation of Burke as dignified, and 
that of Goldsmith as in a way lowering. 
There are few occupations less useful than 
the sophomoric exercises of youthful ora- 
tors in their debating clubs, whereas Gold- 
smith, in writing street-ballads, was doing 
genuine literary work and such as fitted 
him for his future calling. 

While a young man's instincts are still 
unspoiled and he retains his chivalric 
impulses, he shows a generosity and un- 
worldliness that he is too apt afterward 
to lose. Foolish as are the usual town- 
and-gown rows, we would think little of 
a son or nephew who remained aloof when 
his college-mates appealed to him to sup- 
port by force of arms the "honor" of the 
college. 

During Goldsmith's course, a collegian 
being arrested by the bailiff of Dublin, 
there followed a really serious encounter 
between the city authorities and the college 
men. This outbreak resulted in the 



Oliver s College Career 

rescue of the prisoner and the taking of 
the captor. Flushed by success, the stu- 
dents next decided to break open the city- 
prison as a pecuharly Hibernian revenge 
upon the city officials. When firearms were 
discharged from the prison, however, the 
attempt was given up. Eight of the stu- 
dents were brought before the college 
authorities for this outbreak, four were 
expelled, and four reprimanded, among 
the latter being Goldsmith. 

This trouble with the college authori- 
ties seems rather creditable than other- 
wise to the young Irish student, for it 
shows that in an affair in which he con- 
sidered the honor of the college involved 
he was among the most prominent. 

But another college adventure reflects 
upon him more seriously. Having secured 
a petty prize for scholarship — what was 
called "an exhibition," worth about thirty 
shillings a year — Goldsmith, very likely 
in a spirit of irony, gave a little jollification 
in his rooms to celebrate this most unusual 
event. This has been reported as if it 

27 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

were a sign of his simplicity, but it seems 
to me rather more likely to be the result 
of good-nature. One who had up to this 
time received nothing would be the sub- 
ject of much chaffing over a minor dis- 
tinction of the sort, and would be very 
likely invited to "treat" upon the strength 
of it. There would have been no harm 
in the affair had it not been that Gold- 
smith seems to have invited women as 
well as men to his rooms, an offence the 
seriousness of which all university men 
know. There was liquor and probably 
dancing, for the music attracted the atten- 
tion of the authorities and Goldsmith was, 
according to a custom not then given up, 
thrashed or shaken in the presence of his 
guests, who were turned out of doors. 

For this affair there seems no excuse, 
and Goldsmith determined to leave col- 
lege and home. He sold what few mov- 
ables he possessed, intending to take ship 
for America, but loitered somewhere about 
Dublin until he had spent all his money 
but a shilling. Upon this he lived for 

2^8 



Oliver s College Career 

three days, then sold part of his clothing, 
and, finally, after twenty-four hours' starv- 
ing, declared that a handful of grey peas 
given him by a girl at a v^ake was one of 
the most delicious repasts he had ever 
tasted. 

Then, in desperation. Goldsmith com- 
municated in some way with his brother 
Henry, between whom and himself there 
was always the warmest intimacy. Henry 
took Oliver back to college, patched up a 
peace with the authorities, and he entered 
once more upon the dull and unpleasant 
routine of his college life. 

There are but one or two more stories 
in regard to his life at Trinity College. One 
of them is especially characteristic as bear- 
ing out Goldsmith's account of the educa- 
tion given by his father to them all. It is 
said that a fellow student came one day 
to Oliver's room, and on being invited to 
enter, found, that although it was bright 
daylight he was still in bed. After some 
questioning the visitor learned that Gold- 
smith was an unwilling prisoner because 

29 



Jn the Days of Goldsmith 

he had not only given away the blankets 
from his bed, but even part of his clothing, 
to a poor woman who had a brood of help- 
less children. Thus being without bed- 
clothes or proper clothing, Goldsmith had 
kept himself warm by slitting open the 
feather bed and getting in among the 
feathers. This incident even the kindly 
Irving characterizes as a "serio-comic 
story." 

It is strange how differently the same 
state of facts will strike the mind when 
there is a little prejudice to aid the im- 
pression. St. Martin, of France, meets a 
beggar and cuts his cloak in two to throw 
over the poor fellow's shoulders, and is 
looked upon throughout the ages as a 
marvel of charity. Goldsmith, in his own 
very prosaic days, without a thought of 
virtue, feeling his heart wrung for a poor 
woman and her children, gives not only 
his coat, but his blankets also; and his 
biographers can find nothing to say of the 
incident except that it is serio-comic! It 
is to be hoped that there is a recording 

30 



Oliver's College Career 

angel who is better trained at tracing a 
parallel between the actions of those who 
are dubbed as saints and those who make 
no pretence to being other than sinners. 

Such are the glimpses that we catch of 
the boyhood and young manhood of Oliver 
Goldsmith, and in estimating them we 
must remember that we view them through 
the colored glass of his biographers' per- 
sonalities. Only by interpreting them for 
ourselves shall we do Oliver justice. 

Oliver's college days ended on the 27th 
of February, 1749, when we are told that 
he took his B. A., though what importance 
the letters were to him or are to any human 
being is one of the mysteries of life. There 
is something "serio-comic," if you like, 
in the idea of the signature, " Oliver Gold- 
smith, B..A." One might almost as well 
say, "William Shakespeare, LL.D." 

Upon leaving college, instead of a return 
to a welcoming home, there was before 
Goldsmith the making of a place for him- 
self in the world. His father's house at 
Lissoy was now occupied by his sister and 

31 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

her husband. Goldsmith's mother was 
living in a small hut in poverty, while his 
brother Henry was at Pallas, a curate and 
school teacher. 

While Goldsmith was welcomed, there 
was none of his family able to give him a 
home, and he wrote in "A Citizen of the 
World," in later years: "After I had 
resided at college seven years, my father 
died and left me his blessing. Thus 
shoved from shore, without ill-nature 
to protect or cunning to guide or proper 
stores to subsist me in so dangerous a voy- 
age, I was obliged to embark in the wide 
world at twenty-two." In another pas- 
sage he compares himself to one of "those 
gladiators who are exposed without armor 
in the amphitheatre at Rome." 

The period that is covered by Oliver's 
college days extends from 1745 to i749- 
The most important events in England of 
these times may be found pictured in 
Scott's "Waverley," for it was the time 
of the Jacobite rebellion under the Young 
Pretender. 

32 



Oliver s College Career 

In Europe, these were the days that 
were made memorable by the struggle 
between Maria Theresa and the Great 
Frederick, and of the battle of Fontenoy. 

In literature these years see the begin- 
ning of the English novel, for in them 
must be dated "Clarrissa Harlowe," "Rod- 
erick Random," and "Tom Jones." In 
1745 occurred the death of Swift, and the 
Louisburg Expedition in America. In 
1746, the month of April saw the battle of 
Culloden, and the following year was 
marked for the American colonies by the 
atrocities of the French and Indian War; 
1748 is the year of the death of James 
Thomson and the birth of Fox and Goethe 
and Collingwood, while 1 749 was notable 
for the birth of Alfieri, La Place, Ben- 
tham, and Mirabeau. It was during this 
year that France finally abandoned the 
cause of the Stuarts, leaving their struggle 
a mere helpless sentimentality. 

In his lectures upon "The Four 
Georges," Thackeray has in a most mas- 
terly fashion drawn for us a somewhat sys- 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

tematic picture of England at about the 
time of Oliver's growing up. It is true 
that to the boy in Ireland none of the his- 
toric events had for many years any impor- 
tance, and none of the social follies and 
fashions were likely to extend their sway 
into the remote byways of Ireland. But 
nevertheless these things created the cir- 
cumstance amid which his later life was 
passed, and to understand that life we 
must know something of their origin. 

Despite the accusation of being a cynic 
and a satirist, I think no one can read 
Thackeray's story of the Georgian days 
without feeling that he is eminently fair. 
Certainly, in describing the court and 
town life he does not fail to give us a pic- 
ture showing the high lights as well as the 
dark shadows, the good people and the 
bad. 

He calls Horace Walpole's letters 
"cheery," and tells us how through them 
"fiddles sing, wax-lights, fine dress, fine 
plate, glitter and sparkle. Never," he 
says, "was such a brilliant, jigging, smirk- 

34 



Oliver s College Career 

ing Vanity Fair." But with the bright- 
ness he shows us the dark spots, and 
Thackeray has no love for the " little strut- 
ting Sultan, George II," "hunchback, 
beetle-browed Lord Chesterfield," "little 
Mr. Pope and his friend the Irish Dean" 
— Swift, "with scorn and hate quivering 
in his smile." 

Then, from the same source, we have 
an arraignment of the fashionable church- 
men, corrupt and indifferent amidst indif- 
ference and corruption, followed by a 
word of heartfelt approval for Whitefield 
and Wesley, abandoning church corrup- 
tion, praying and preaching in the open 
air. 

But Thackeray declares it was a merrier 
England than the England of his own day. 
"People highland low amused themselves 
very much more," he writes, adding that 
it is "wonderful how they got through 
their business at all when they spent so 
much time at the table and at games, 
cock-fighting, wrestling, and so on. Every 
town had its fair, every village its wake," 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

and everywhere were rural sports, such as 
cudgel-play, grinning through horse-collars. 
May-pole and morris dances. Among 
other popular amusements he names danc- 
ing, band-playing, fiddlers, and strolling 
players. Prominent in the social history 
of the time are the festivities in various 
country towns such as York, Newmarket, 
Norwich, and especially Bath, the most 
fashionable watering-place of the day. 

But here, again, close upon the amuse- 
ments and brighter sides of life come the 
darker chronicles of crime, punishment, 
and misery, — the barbarous punishments, 
the personal encounters, grinding poverty, 
crude medical practice, and loose morals. 
And both in Goldsmith's own career and 
in his writings we shall see misery and vice 
knocking elbows with fashionable frivolity, 
with simple virtuous living, and beneficent 
endeavor. 



36 



CHAPTER III 

SEEKING A PROFESSION 

Everything shows that Oliver's rela- 
tives, with one notable exception, con- 
sidered him a ne'er-do-well, and had no 
wish to take any responsibility in his future 
course. The exception, naturally enough, 
was the uncle who had befriended him. 
This may have been due to a spice of obsti- 
nacy in the old gentleman, though it is 
difficult to give chapter and verse for the 
impression that he was obstmate. A minor- 
ity of one in a family is likely to hold 
strongly to an opinion opposed by the rest. 
Uncle Contarine believed Oliver to possess 
some genius, and it is a pleasure to recog- 
nize that this benevolent relative was so 
entirely right when all the rest opposed 
him. 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

We may not admire Uncle Contarine's 
choice of a profession for Oliver, and may 
wonder why the Church was selected, but 
we should remember that in those days 
there were for educated young men only 
the three professions and the army, and 
this fourth choice was not open to those 
who could not buy a commission. Law, 
too, required ample funds to support a 
student while he was keeping terms and 
eating dinners in the Inns of Court. These 
excluded, only the Church and medicine 
remained, and between the two we shall 
see that Oliver vibrated for a long period 
and only gave them up when he had proved 
unfitness for either. 

The Church of the time made no very 
serious demands upon its clergy. As we 
know by the Reformation that took place 
not long after this time, the established 
Church was in a state of lethargy. It was 
a natural re-action from the long and acri- 
monious strife that had for so many years 
troubled the people of England. The 
leaven of the Reformation had done its 

.38 



Seeking a Profession 

work in dividing the people sharply accord- 
ing to their beliefs and temperaments. 
There was a disinclination to disturb the 
peace. Those clergymen were most popu- 
lar who confined their ministrations to the 
Sunday services and were willing to be 
hail-fellow-well-met during the week. 

This state of things was to be sharply 
interrupted by the rise of Methodism, but, 
for the most part, the gentlemen of the 
cloth were leading rather somnolent exis- 
tences. The chief requisites, therefore, 
to qualify a man for holy orders at the time 
when Uncle Contarine proposed the 
profession for Oliver, were sufficient lite- 
rary ability to compose necessary sermons, 
a fair presence, ability to comport one's 
self acceptably, and a willingness to con- 
form to conventional standards. 

The influence of the leaders of the 
Church, as a Church historian declares, 
was "toward the suppression, not the regu- 
lation, of all manifestations of religious 
zeal." "Wherever earnestness appeared," 
says the same authority, "Jacobitism was 

39 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

suspected"; and though this acute stage 
had passed away for some years, it had 
left in the ascendency those churchmen 
who frowned upon whatever would bring 
about agitation. 

As to OHver's opinion of the matter, it 
is hkely that it was confined to simple 
repugnance to the restraints the Church 
would have imposed upon him, saying 
humorously that he was unwilling to 
"wear a long wig when I liked a short one, 
or a black coat" when he liked a brown 
one; but he yielded to his uncle's request 
and declared his willingness to prepare to 
pass the necessary tests. 

And yet the state of things in the English 
Church, during Oliver's youth, was not 
such as to awaken enthusiasm even in a 
young man more susceptible to such 
things than Oliver could have been. The 
interior of the churches themselves were 
eloquent of neglect and of privilege. 
Wakeman, in his "History of the Church 
of England," draws a contrast between 
the provision made for the principal fam- 

40 



Seeking a Profession 

ilies of each parish and that alloted to the 
poor or undistinguished. He makes a 
striking picture of the decaying church 
interiors and comments on the exclusive- 
ness that separated the well-to-do from 
their poorer neighbors. 

He tells us how there was ample pro- 
vision made for the rich who could pay 
well toward the maintenance of the clergy 
and almost complete indifference to the 
welfare of those to whom the Church 
should have been a loving mother. And 
yet the same writer who is so severe in 
depicting the state of the Church, declares 
that the clergy were far better than the 
laity of their time, and shows us that men 
like Oliver's father were not rare among 
clergymen, though most apt to be found 
far from the arena where the struggle for 
preferment was sharpest. 

It is not remarkable that with the mem- 
ory of his father's poverty fresh in mind, 
and in full view of the struggles of his 
brother Henry to maintain a large and 
growing family, Oliver saw little reason 

41 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

to believe life in the Church would be 
enjoyable. Of any higher motive tov^ard 
the calling there is but one hint, a reported 
speech that he was "not good enough" 
for it. One wonders why Goldsmith did 
not yield himself to the influence of White- 
field and Wesley, who were at that time 
doing marvelous work, though they had 
not yet separated themselves formally 
from the established Church. 

There is a reference to the Methodist 
preachers in his essay "On the English 
Clergy," but one that seems to show him 
in the same attitude of mind toward these 
new preachers that a young college man 
of the present day would be in toward the 
Salvation Army. He recommends some 
characteristics of theirs for imitation, but 
evidently disapproves of certain of their 
methods. 

As, however, the limitation of age pre- 
vented Oliver's entering the diaconate 
until he was twenty-three, there remained 
two or three years before he could present 
himself for admission to the Church, and 

4^ 



Seeking a Profession 

how he spent this time he himself has told 
us. He Hved with his mother at Bally- 
mahon, and busied himself during the 
intervals of his studies by helping his 
brother Henry in school teaching. He 
runs errands for his mother, writes bits of 
verse to please his uncle Contarine, and, 
as Forster tells us, amused himself at an 
old inn not far from his mother's house, 
where, with a few young friends, he passes 
his evenings in playing whist, telling 
stories, and singing songs. Forster, this 
biographer, has industriously collected evi- 
dences of the occupations of this period, 
learning from his "Animated Nature" 
that Goldsmith caught fish and hunted 
the otter along the banks of the Inny and 
Shannon rivers; that he "learned French 
from the Irish priests," won a prize for 
hammer-throwing at a fair, and was now 
and then seen playing the flute in a win- 
dow of his mother's lodgings. 

Altogether, we are told that these two 
years in rural Ireland were a sort of vaca- 
tion to the young college man, giving him 

43 



'In the Days of Goldsmith 

time to rest after the excitement of his 
Dublin Hfe, and restoring him to that 
atmosphere of rural simplicity that had 
been about him since childhood. 

When the time had arrived to apply to 
the Bishop of his diocese, it is said that 
Goldsmith presented himself for exami- 
nation wearing a pair of scarlet breeches. 
This story seems to have been based upon 
a mere tradition, and other traditions tell 
us that Oliver's unfitness for holy orders 
was not a question of mere appearance, 
but became evident to the Bishop of 
Elphin after an examination had shown 
him unprepared in the required studies. 

It is also said that his reputation with 
the Bishop was injured by reports from 
his old college tutor. The story of the 
scarlet breeches seems to take its place 
naturally with the misinterpretations that 
abound throughout Goldsmith's biogra- 
phies. One is tempted to invent theories 
to account for the unlikely anecdote. One 
asks whether, having failed to pass his 
examination by the Bishop, Goldsmith 

44 



Seeking a Profession 

himself gave out this absurd story, in order 
that his failure should be put down to an 
odd freak of his genius rather than to inca- 
pacity. Or, if the story be true, is it impos- 
sible that Goldsmith was color-blind, and 
thus incapable of realizing the utter incon- 
gruity of his appearance with his declared 
intention of entering a dignified profes- 
sion ? 

A third explanation of his failure to 
take orders is given by his sister, Mrs. 
Hodson, who declares that her brother 
was considered too young. In the sup- 
posed autobiography, "A Citizen of the 
World" (Letter 27), this happening is 
commented upon as follows: **I rejected 
a life of luxury, indolence, and ease, from 
no other consideration but that boyish one 
of dress." 

If Goldsmith was color-blind, it would 
explain his many oddities of taste in the 
matter of bright colors. Unable to under- 
stand their garishness, his friends' objec- 
tion to his brilliant costumes would seem 
to be unreasonable. There is an instance 

45 



In the Days of Goldsmith' 

of his pride in a bright-colored coat, re- 
counted by Boswell, where the coat is said 
to be "bloom-colored/' a term not satis- 
factorily explained in our dictionaries, 
though, to judge by the older authorities, 
it probably means a color like the bloom 
upon fresh grapes. 

Following his rejection by the Bishop 
came another application for aid to Uncle 
Contarine, and an attempt to serve as tutor 
in a private family. This work lasted a 
year, and is said to have come to an end 
because of an accusation of cheating at 
cards made by Goldsmith against some 
member of the family. But the year's 
work had at least given him a small capital, 
for he came back to Ballymahon riding a 
good horse, and with thirty pounds in his 
pocket, which would seem to indicate that 
this was by far his most prosperous year. 
Judging by the amounts usually paid 
tutors at the time, and the reference to 
card-playing, it is not improbable that 
the most lucrative part of Oliver's engage- 
ment may have been the time spent at the 

46 



Seeking a Profession 

card-table. Certainly, unless lie was some- 
times winner, it does not seem likely that 
there should have been an attempt at un- 
fair play on the part of his opponents. 

The next episode shows us an attempt 
on Oliver's part to see the world. Having 
such a tidy little sum of money in his 
pocket, and being mounted upon a good 
horse, he started, without warning his 
family or friends of his intention, for 
Cork, and there paid the price of a passage 
to America. Then, the ship having been 
detained by contrary winds, Oliver gave 
the time to making an excursion into the 
neighborhood of this city. Fortunately 
for the captain of the ship, unfortunately 
for his absent passenger, during this excur- 
sion a favorable wind arose and the ship 
set sail, leaving Goldsmith behind. 

Then Oliver lived upon his money until 
he had but two guineas left, and thought 
it necessary to make some provision for 
returning home. The poor beast that 
was all he could then afford must have 
been a horse of unattractive appearance 

47 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

to deserve the name of "Fiddleback," 
which Oliver gave him. 

He had no more than five shillings in 
his pocket v^hen he set out for Bally- 
mahon. A beggar soon wheedled the 
last few shillings from Oliver's never 
stingy hand, and left him penniless. 
Then came the attempt to secure help 
from a college acquaintance, whose mean- 
ness is amusingly described. This broken 
reed failed utterly when Oliver asked him 
for a little money, and he would only recom- 
mend that he sell Fiddleback and rely upon 
his own feet and a stout staff to take him 
home. 

A second application to a kindlier house- 
hold resulted more fortunately, and here 
Oliver was entertained by the two daugh- 
ters of his host. He describes their play- 
ing enchantingly upon the harpsichord. 
As it was the first time these girls had 
touched that instrument since the recent 
death of their mother, Goldsmith tells us 
that the father sat by with tears running 
down his cheeks. All these particulars 

48 



Seeking a Profession 

came from the charming letters Oliver 
wrote to explain his absence from home. 

These two vignettes, the miserly col- 
legian who grudged his friend the least 
help, and the widower with his two musi- 
cal daughters, though so briefly indi- 
cated, bring back vividly Oliver's queer 
journey home from Cork. This trip had 
cost Oliver all his savings and six weeks 
of his time. 

The bad penny having come back, the 
next question was how it should be dis- 
posed of. Uncle Contarine, with a pa- 
tience more admirable than prudent, gave 
Oliver fifty pounds, and advised him to 
make his way to London for the purpose 
of studying law. There are not many 
young Americans but a short time out of 
college and with anything but a reputa- 
tion for prudence, who, upon returning 
from a six weeks' escapade, in which they 
had wasted a hundred and fifty dollars, 
would find at home a generous uncle ready 
to set them up with another two hundred 
and fifty dollars for the purpose of making 
a new start. 

49 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

It IS unfortunate that Oliver did not 
better repay his uncle's confidence. It 
would seem that he should at least have 
proceeded straightway to London, but 
Oliver got no farther than Dublin. He 
there discovered an old acquaintance, 
who induced him to gamble, with the 
result that before long he was again pen- 
niless. 

Ashamed to confess his fault, he re- 
mained for some time in Dublin, but at 
length letting his family know his condi- 
tion, he was generously forgiven by his 
uncle, though not by his brother Henry, 
with whom he had a quarrel. 

Another brief period of uncertainty fol- 
lowed, and then, through the advice of a 
magnate of the family, a Dean Goldsmith, 
it was resolved to try the one remaining 
profession. Undoubtedly this family oracle 
had been appealed to in regard to Oliver's 
future, and seeing that the failures of the 
young man had exhausted all other pos- 
sibilities, had declared in his wisdom that 
Oliver's only chance lay in the profession 

50 



Seeking a Profession 

of medicine. Once more the family was 
appealed to for funds, and by a sort of 
general collection, enough was made up 
to send Oliver to Edinburgh. 

There are a number of anecdotes told 
of the sojourn at Edinburgh. The first 
of these tells how Oliver left his luggage 
in new lodgings without taking note of 
his landlady's name or of the location of 
the house, and succeeded in finding his 
property again only through the accident of 
meeting the porter who had carried his 
trunk to the hired rooms. 

His stay at Edinburgh covered a year 
and a half, and we get some knowledge of 
it through the letters home to Uncle Con- 
tarine, and to his cousin and old crony. 
Bob Bryanton. From these letters we 
gather little of importance, but they show 
at least that he was considered an enter- 
taining friend and companion. 

Though poor, he cared enough for dress 
to buy a supply that enabled him to make 
a good appearance. He found food for 
pleasant satire in the peculiarities of the 

51 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

Scotch, and became better acquainted 
with medical students than with medicine. 

Here, as in Ballymahon and in Dubhn, 
Goldsmith was studying rather the book 
of human- life than any college curriculum, 
and was thus preparing himself for his 
true profession, while his friends looked 
upon him as neglecting his opportunities. 

It may be that only from a disposition 
inclining one to the irregularities of life 
can there come the works of imagination 
that will entertain minds to whom the 
routine of existence has become for a time 
wearisome. 



52 



CHAPTER IV 

HIS UNSETTLED YEARS 

At Edinburgh, as in college at Dublin, 
there seems to have been a certain con- 
flict of opinion in regard to the young 
Irishman's attainments. While there is 
no reason to think that he ever was a 
scholar, yet it is evident that he secured 
the friendship and at times the admiration 
of men with whom he was thrown. In 
the Scotch capital he showed some talent 
for chemistry, and was remembered by 
his teacher; he made friends of several 
students who proved their worth by later 
eminence, and he came into contact with 
the better element of the city. 

This acquaintance with good society 
may have been the excuse to Goldsmith 
for what seems to us a rather extravagant 

53 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

wardrobe. There still exists one of the 
young student's tailor bills that seems to 
a modern judgment to indicate the same 
taste for bright colors and dandified attire 
we have seen referred to again and again 
in accounts of the poet. 

It should be remembered that our mod- 
ern costume makes so little appeal to those 
about us that it is of comparatively slight 
importance what a man wears. V/e pay 
the very least attention to fabrics, colors, 
or the fashion of cloth, but in Goldsmith's 
day, the dress, even of men, demanded on 
the part of those who wished to cut a figure 
in society, as much attention as is given 
to the same question by a modern belle. 
There was no such thing as buying cloth- 
ing ready-made, and tailors were supplied 
with a large variety of rich, brightly- 
colored fabrics expressly made to tempt 
their customers. Goldsmith, having much 
self-esteem with no advantages of person, 
would be readily induced to a certain 
dandyism of attire in the hope of securing 
that deference for which he always longed. 

S4 



His Unsettled Tears 

The distinction between the upper and 
the lower classes was peculiarly sharp at 
that time. We have seen how widely the 
treatment of the two differed in the Church, 
and this was only typical of the varying 
consideration received by rich and poor 
everywhere else. It was a time of pros- 
perity for the upper classes, and conse- 
quently a time of extravagance and pride 
of wealth. 

It was not unnatural that a young man 
with so good an opinion of himself as Oliver 
evidently had, should try to secure social 
recognition by the only means open to 
him. Consequently we find, upon his 
old tailor bill such items as "sky-blue sat- 
tin," (to follow the tailor's old-fashioned 
spelling), " clarett-colored cloth, superfine 
best white shalloon," and "Genoa velvet.'* 

In Edinburgh Goldsmith remained from 
1752 until early in 1754. 

During his student days had taken 
place the sudden development of the Eng- 
lish novel. Beginning in cruder form 
with Defoe's romances, the art of prose 

55 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

fiction reached near to perfection of form 
about 1740, with Samuel Richardson's 
** Pamela," the first English novel possess- 
ing "all the requisites of such a composi- 
tion as the delineation of social life, real 
characters, probabilities and possibilities, 
and thr working out of a regularly con- 
structed plot." In 1748, the same book- 
seller, Richardson, brought out his "Cla- 
rissa Harlowe." 

Meanwhile, Fielding, intending to make 
fun of Richardson, brought out "Joseph 
Andrews, " burlesquing the prim virtue of 
Richardson's heroine by that of his unso- 
phisticated hero. But Fielding's excur- 
sion into the field of novel-writing had given 
him a taste for this kind of composition, and 
in 1749 he wrote "Tom Jones," a work 
that great critics, including Gibbon, Byron, 
Macaulay, and Thackeray, have put at the 
head of all books of its class. 

Meanwhile, the same school of writing 
had attracted Smollett, who was to write 
books second only to those of Fielding 
himself. The writing of these novels dur- 

.56 



His Unsettled Tears 

ing Goldsmith's youth, had a serious effect 
upon his own career, since it helped to 
create a body of readers who demanded 
the work of many pens, and caused a rapid 
increase in the ranks of those who wrote 
for a Hving. 

In 1748, while Goldsmith was still an 
undergraduate, died James Thomson, au- 
thor of "The Seasons," whose "Castle of 
Indolence" had been published only that 
same year. Thomson's view of nature 
was in many respects a new one, because 
it minimized the human element and 
showed that in nature, apart from mankind, 
lay all the necessary elements of poetry. 

Students of literature have traced the 
development of the modern view of nature 
in poetry to the reaction against the 
severely classical taste, from Thomson 
and Collins, through Gray to Goldsmith. 
"Gray," says Stopford Brooke, "estab- 
lished a standard of careful accuracy in 
natural description." Both Gray and Col- 
lins, however, required the human interest 
in their poems. 

57 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

Other poets of minor rank made this 
interest not only human but selfish. From 
such men as these Goldsmith may have 
learned to observe nature accurately and 
to delight in her scenes. But in Gold- 
smith's poems we shall find there is not 
the same feeling of the necessity of the 
human element. This elimination of man- 
kind and of personal feeling from the love 
of nature was to complete the revolution 
in poetical method that had begun with 
Thomson. 

Another form of composition which 
was destined to be of enormous influence, 
but to be absorbed into a still more effec- 
tive species, was the periodical essay. Per- 
haps the briefest way to describe what is 
meant will be to cite the universally known 
"Spectator." This periodical, after issu- 
ing five hundred and fifty-five numbers, 
came to an end in 1 712, to be revived again 
in 1 714. Subsequently it had a number 
of successors, such as the *'Tatler" and 
the "Guardian." 

In 1750 Boswell declares bombastically 
that Johnson "came forth in a character 

58 



His Unsettled Tears 

for which he was eminently qualified, a 
majestic teacher of moral and religious 
wisdom"; that is, to state the plain fact, 
he published the "Rambler," which con- 
tinued for about two years and helped to 
carry on the tradition of these little jour- 
nals to the day when Goldsmith attempted 
the same sort of thing in "The Bee." Of 
course it was inevitable that the modern 
development of the daily paper should put 
an end to these minor publications. 

Among matters that must have been 
more or less discussed during this year cer- 
tainly must be counted, in foreign affairs, 
the founding of the city of Halifax, in Nova 
Scotia, as a means of controlling the great 
harbor which the French had found the 
year before was so advantageous for fit- 
ting out an expedition. 

To induce soldiers to colonize the new 
settlement large grants of land were made 
with freedom from taxation, for a period 
of years. The project was successful, 
and created a great stronghold in the new 
world. 

59 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

In London there were three topics that 
certainly attracted public attention. The 
state of the prisons at this time, as we know 
from the investigations of the few philan- 
thropists who dared brave their horrors, 
was unutterably bad, and the magistrates 
at Sessions House received proof of this in 
the month of May, when over sixty deaths, 
including two judges, a lord mayor, and 
several jurymen, occurred through jail- 
fever caught from the prisoners. There 
is hardly an imaginable evil that did not 
exist in the loathsome jails of these days, 
and that Goldsmith knew of their condition 
we are aware by the prison scenes in his 
"Vicar." 

Earlier in the same year had occurred 
two distinct shocks of earthquake that 
had done considerable damage; and to- 
ward the end of the year, Londoners went 
to view with pride the new Westminster 
Bridge, which, about the middle of Novem- 
ber, was opened to the public — ^the second 
stone bridge to be thrown across the 
Thames. Along the sides of the great 

60 



His Unsettled Tears 

structure were high parapets, which for- 
eigners declared were built to provide 
against the Englishman's proclivity to 
commit suicide! 

It was in 1751, the year of Goldsmith's 
rejection by the Bishop, that saw the publi- 
cation of Gray's " Elegy," and was notable 
in America for the philosophical experi- 
ments of Benjamin Franklin, and, in 
India, for the marvelous rise to power of 
young Clive. 

The Mogul empire, founded by Tamer- 
lane, had grown until Aurungzebe ruled 
nearly the whole peninsula. In 1707, 
Aurungzebe's death broke up the empire, 
and the European nations — Portuguese, 
French, and Dutch — struggled for a share 
of the fragments. The Frenchman, Dup- 
leix, attempted to found a French empire 
in India, and met with no serious opposi- 
tion until the English joined those natives 
who opposed him. Robert Clive was a 
young clerk in the service of the East India 
Company, and when he flung down the 
pen to lead the natives against the trium- 

61 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

phant French forces, the tide of fortune, 
hitherto in favor of Dupleix, was suddenly 
turned by the "valor and genius of an 
obscure English youth." 

Clive was about twenty-five, and at the 
head of two hundred English soldiers and 
three hundred Sepoys he captured Arcot, 
a fort that he then held against some ten 
thousand men, with a brilliant valor well 
painted by Macaulay in his great essay. 
From this beginning, Clive's rise was so 
rapid as to be almost without a parallel, 
and to him as much as to any one man is 
due the existence of the English empire in 
India. 

Another event that is to be particularly 
noted by the reader of history is the change 
in the calendar which in this year was 
resolved upon, and which began, in 1752, 
the change from the Old to the New Style. 
The new year was to begin on January ist 
instead of March 25th. In order to bring 
the calendar of England into agreement 
with that used since 1582 upon the Conti- 
nent, it was necessary to drop out eleven 

62 



His Unsettled Tears 

days, and this was done by calling Sep- 
tember 3, 1752, September 14th. 

To the common people it seemed that 
the government was in some way robbing 
them of more than a week, and there were 
in consequence a number of tumults in 
which were heard the cries, "Give us back 
our eleven days!" 

Some slight remnant of a similar mis- 
understanding will be remembered as 
existing in our own country at the time of 
the adoption of the new system for stan- 
dardizing the time of day. In those 
places where it was necessary to drop a 
few minutes, for uniformity, there was 
considerable discussion as to whether this 
time were lost. 

As a contrast to the confusion of mind 
indicated by these absurd disturbances 
over a mere change of wording, we may 
look upon the work of Benjamin Franklin 
in America. By applying the genius of 
plain common sense to the observation of 
nature, the American philosopher discov- 
ered the general laws that regulate the 

63 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

course of storms over the American conti- 
nent, and also made valuable observations 
upon the Gulf Stream — to name only two 
of his most prominent services to mankind. 

In fact, the most distinctive mark of the 
eighteenth century is well typified in Ben- 
jamin Franklin. It was a time when 
acute intellects were taking stock of the 
world's wealth of knowledge, and devis- 
ing means by which that knowledge could 
be put to human service. 

In 1 75 1 were born the great orator, 
dramatist, and wit, Richard Brinsley Sheri- 
dan, and John Scott, afterward the great 
Chancellor, Lord Eldon. The latter began 
his career by paying every penny of his 
wife's portion — all the money the young 
couple had — as the first of the fees re- 
quired at his entrance upon the course of 
reading for the bar — an indication of 
superb confidence in himself. 

In November of 1752 was born Thomas 
Chatterton, the posthumous son of a poor 
schoolmaster, whose widow had been left 
penniless. The early years of Chatterton 

64 



His Unsettled Tears 

resembled those of Goldsmith m that 
both were considered blockheads. Chatter- 
ton's awakening to intelligence came from 
his admiration of some beautifully illumi- 
nated initials in an old manuscript. It is 
said that he learned to read from the pages 
of a black-letter Bible, a curious circum- 
stance in the life of one who gave to the 
forgery of ancient literature a genius that 
might have won him honest fame in hap- 
pier circumstances. 

While Goldsmith was yet in Edinburgh, 
the British Museum was begun, through 
the bequest of Sir Hans Sloane, celebrated 
as a physician and naturalist. This Irish, 
Ulster County Protestant had been a dis- 
tinguished naturalist, making among other 
notable collections a herbarium of the 
Island of Jamaica. He had acquired also 
fifty thousand books and numerous manu- 
scripts. At his death the accumulations 
of his lifetime work were oflPered to the 
nation for twenty thousand pounds, to be 
paid to his daughters, an amount said to be 
considerably less than half their value. 

65 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

It was believed that the opportunity 
should not be lost by the Parliament, and 
an act was passed providing for the raising 
of three hundred thousand pounds to buy 
the Sloane collection, the Harleian collec- 
tion, and the Cottonian manuscripts, his- 
torical works of the greatest value. For 
many years after this time, lotteries were 
considered entirely legitimate as a means 
of raising funds for public enterprises. 

The last of the Dukes of Montague had 
died a few years before, leaving an enor- 
mous mansion that had come into the mar- 
ket, and now Montague House was bought 
for the reception of those great public 
collections, and these became the nucleus 
of the British Museum. What that is 
to-day, the world knows. Nowhere else 
are the treasures of the world so com- 
pletely represented, and from the remotest 
corners of the world loyal Britons are 
always bringing new acquisitions to swell 
the great aggregation that is the national 
pride. No event of the time, if truly 
weighed, can compare in far-reaching 

66 



His Unsettled Years 

importance with the creation of this great 
storehouse of wisdom and treasury of 
knowledge for all succeeding generations 
of Englishmen. 

In 1754, by the month of February, 
Goldsmith had either become restless or in 
some way involved at Edinburgh, for he 
decided to make a trip abroad, persuading 
his family that he could not but profit 
greatly by the medical instruction to be 
obtained in Europe. Once again he re- 
ceived what aid the family could spare, 
twenty pounds having been contributed 
by his generous Uncle Contarine. 

Just as he was about to depart, we are 
told that he was arrested on account of 
having become security for a fellow- 
student, and was only enabled to set sail 
by the liberal assistance of two good friends. 
This foreign trip begins a new episode in 
his whimsical career. 



67 



CHAPTER V 

STUDENT AND WANDER DAYS 

We have certain little sketches of the 
times in Scotland that help to make Gold- 
smith's life there more understandable. 
Thus, in writing of the first boarding- 
place he had chosen in Edinburgh, there 
is an amusing paragraph relating how 
an economical landlady would make a 
joint last her boarders for a week, and yet 
save enough out of it to manufacture a 
broth on the seventh day, when *'the 
landlady rested from her labors." This 
final touch of humor shows that the Gold- 
smith of those days had the same humorous 
genius that illuminates his later writings. 

We know, both from his letters and from 
other accounts, that the conviviality and 
tavern merrymakings of which we have 

68 



Student and Wander Days 

seen something in accounts of the early 
days of Scott a generation later, were, in 
Goldsmith's time, even more common 
among the students, and there is nothing 
to encourage the belief that Goldsmith 
avoided the frolics of his fellow-country- 
men, where he would be, as Irving reminds 
us, a prime favorite because of his good 
humor, wit, ability to sing songs, and 
talent for story-telling. Gambling was, 
of course, exceedingly common at the 
time among all who made a pretense of 
fashion and were not straitlaced. 

In excusing himself for not writing to his 
old friend, Bryanton, we find a compari- 
son, natural enough at the time, perhaps, 
but one that to us speaks of a past cus- 
tom. Goldsmith writes: "No turn-spit 
dog gets up into his wheel with more 
reluctance than I sit down to write, yet 
no dog ever loved the roast meat he turns 
better than I do him I now address". 

The same letter goes on to tell us of the 
dismal Scotch landscape, treeless, brook- 
less; but the Scotch people are praised 

69 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

for serious purpose in life and for their 
activity, the Scotch women for their good 
looks. 

Another side glance tells us of the dismal 
formality of a Scotch dancing party, from 
the stiff minuet to the country dances in 
which there is no conversation between 
the men and women. 

The next two years in Goldsmith's life 
were spent in a sort of knight-errantry of 
learning. As of old the free lance of 
chivalry set forth with no other purpose 
than to add to his experience of life and 
his fame as a warrior, so Goldsmith, 
leaving the University at Edinburgh under 
the pretext, or with the excuse, of com- 
pleting his education, found the earliest 
opportunity to journey the highways and 
byways of Europe with no other purpose 
than to improve his mind by the contem- 
plation of mankind under various condi- 
tions. 

The motive of his journey might at first 
seem no more than the restlessness of his 
character, but a careful examination of 

70 



Student and Wander Days 

his works has in many cases explained 
acts not otherwise understandable, and it 
has been pointed out by his biographers 
that Goldsmith showed in his "Enquiry 
into the Polite State of Learning" an in- 
tense admiration for a famous Dane, 
Baron Holberg, who not only begged his 
way through school, but at the age of 
seventeen set out to see the world by 
making a tour of Europe on foot, with no 
other support than ability to sing, and to 
teach a few branches of learning. In 
telling of Holberg's career, Goldsmith 
concludes with the statement that this 
"life begun in contempt and penury, 
ended in opulence and esteem." 

The death of Holberg occurred in 1754, 
and Goldsmith's journey was undertaken 
in the following month. The connection 
between the two journeys certainly seems 
very close. 

But before Goldsmith was able to leave 
England, we are told by himself that a 
storm brought their vessel to take refuge 
in the harbor of Newcastle, where he and 

71 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

seven companions were arrested and ac- 
cused of trying to raise soldiers in Scotland 
for the French army, an enterprise of 
which his companions were probably 
guilty. After two weeks, all were released, 
and the journey must have been resumed, 
for we know that early in the summer 
Goldsmith was pursuing his studies at 
Leyden. 

It was during these experiences of Gold- 
smith that there came the first serious strife 
between France and England in America, 
France possessing the mouth of the St. 
Lawrence, and claiming control of the 
whole course of that river. Having also 
Louisiana, and claiming likewise the Mis- 
sissippi up to its source, a dominion that 
in those days might well serve as excuse 
for holding nearly the whole continent 
westward of the extreme coast, she sought 
to monopolize trade with the Indians, and 
to confine the English colonists closely to 
the coast settlements. In order to make 
good her claims, France meant to build 
a long system of fortresses, and had already 

72 



Student and Wander Days 

established Fort Du Quesne, on the present 
site of Pittsburgh. 

It was during the attempt of the Eng- 
lish to take this stronghold that Washing- 
ton made his first military campaign. 
This was his first appearance in any promi- 
nent way in colonial affairs. Six years 
earlier, he had been surveying the property 
of Lord Fairfax, in Virginia; three years 
before he had made a trip to the Barba- 
does with an invalid brother. Governor 
Dinwiddie, of Virginia, sent Washington 
against the French post, and Washington, 
after building the little stronghold known 
as Fort Necessity, was there besieged and 
at last forced to surrender. During the 
next year, Washington resigned from the 
army because of an order making the holder 
of any royal commission the superior of 
any colonial officer, but, fortunately, the 
young Virginian was selected to serve on 
the staff of General Braddock, in which 
capacity we shall next hear of him. 

While Goldsmith was still a student at 
Leyden, pursuing more or less seriously 

7Z 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

his medical studies, the war between 
France and England in America became 
inevitable. In June of this year we see 
Benjamin Franklin proposing in the city 
of Albany a union of the colonies for their 
mutual protection; but apparently the 
time was not yet ripe for that. 

Other events that took place during 
Goldsmith's ten months at Leyden Uni- 
versity were the appearance of David 
Hume's History of the Stuarts, the first 
volume of his History of England. Hume 
was then several years over forty, had been 
a lawyer, and a merchant, but had been 
led by his studious habits to philosophi- 
cal and historical writing. The influence 
of this brilliant and hard-headed Scotch- 
man was far reaching, leading, it is thought, 
to the philosophy of Kant and the political 
economy of Adam Smith. 

In the fall of the same year occurred at 
Lisbon the death of Henry Fielding, the 
novelist, who, beginning with the inten- 
tion of writing a parody upon Richardson's 
sentimental romances, had securely fixed 

74 



Student and Wander Days 

for many years the type that was to con- 
trol the creation of English fiction. 

In America, the same time was notable 
for the founding of King's College, which, 
after the Revolution, was to become 
Columbia. The whole population of the 
English colonies in America was not much 
under fifteen hundred thousand, nearly 
three hundred thousand being negroes; 
a thousand slaves being held in Boston 
alone, while in New York City the slaves 
formed a sixth of the population, in 
Philadelphia, a quarter of it. But the 
colonists, though still looking to the mother 
country for assistance in their trouble with 
France, were learning their own power, 
contributing freely men and money to 
form an effective militia. 

Just about a year after coming to the 
Continent, induced, as has been said, by 
the death in Leyden of Baron Holberg, 
Goldsmith set out upon his walking-tour, 
relying upon his skill as a flute-player, 
and as a disputant upon scholastic sub- 
jects. It is a characteristic touch that 

75 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

his small stock of cash nearly all went, 
upon the eve of his departure for Leyden, 
to buy some flower-bulbs as a present for 
his Uncle Contarine. This is a bit of 
improvidence that must have brought a 
smile to the lips of the recording angel. 
He was left with but a single gold-piece 
to provide the sinews of war for his Euro- 
pean travels. 

Of this trip there was once a record in 
his letters home, but these have been 
long lost. As a result, in order to supply 
this lack of knowledge, recourse is had, 
usually, to that part of "The Vicar of 
Wakefield," where a similar expedition 
is described — that of a philosophical vaga- 
bond, who earned his lodging with the 
peasantry by a lively air played on the 
flute as he approached their homes at 
nightfall. There is no doubt some truth 
in the portrait, but not so much that we 
may depend upon it in all its details. 

Recourse to this friend's memories of 
Goldsmith's conversations, shows that he 
was put to every shift to secure a lodging, 

76 



Student and Wander Days 

sometimes going to convents and asking 
lodgings from the friars, sometimes sleep- 
ing, in true tramp-fashion, in barns, or by 
the roadsides, and, again, depending upon 
the admiration of scholars to secure him 
hospitality at the colleges and universities. 
It was not yet a disused custom to offer 
quarters to those poor scholars who could 
establish their right by brilliance in debate. 
We can construct a general picture of his 
tour only by bringing together the few 
references or memoranda relating to cer- 
tain towns he is thought to have visited. 

Forster, in his Life, speaks of Gold- 
smith's having taken a degree at Louvain 
University, and though the records of 
that institution were destroyed in the 
revolutionary wars, it is believed that he 
owed his title of doctor to this degree. 

Other points he must have visited are 
Brussels, Maestricht, and Antwerp, nota- 
ble for its strong fortifications. Then 
he entered France, where the peasantry 
are particularly hospitable. A sojourn 
in that country followed, where he is said 

77 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

to have been more prosperous — it it hinted 
because he was able to borrow money 
from the many students at its great uni-* 
versities. It may be, however, that his 
better circumstances were due to the fact 
that he acted as tutor to a rich but stingy 
young man, of whom we know nothing 
else. 

Shrewd observer as he was. Goldsmith 
was impressed by the sharp contrast 
between the bold spirits of the French 
people and the virtual slavery in which 
they lived, predicting that the French 
were "imperceptibly vindicating them- 
selves into freedom," and declaring, "the 
genius of freedom has entered that king- 
dom in disguise." Subsequently the same 
wandering life took him to Switzerland, 
and then to Italy. 

It used to be said, relying upon a state- 
ment of his own, that he had met, during 
his visit to Paris, the great Voltaire; but 
the better opinion is that if the meeting 
took place, it must have been in Geneva, 
to which city Voltaire had then retired. 

78 



Student and Wander Days 

Other distinguished men of letters he is 
said to have met are Diderot, the inventor 
of the " Encyclopedie," which was then 
in progress, and the witty Fontenelle, then 
almost a hundred years old. Although 
Goldsmith himself places this meeting at 
Paris, and depicts a combat of wit between 
Voltaire and Fontenelle, he was anything 
but accurate in matters of place and date. 

In Italy, we hear of him in Piedmont 
and at Padua, the University of the latter 
city being a second claimant for the honor 
of giving him his medical degree. But 
the illness of his uncle Contarine cut off 
his most certain supplies, and after a futile 
attempt to raise money from other mem- 
bers of the family. Goldsmith felt that he 
must return to England, having first 
despatched to his brother Henry the 
rough sketch of the poem he was there- 
after to elaborate into "The Traveller." 

The return to his native land he thus 
describes: "I fought my way towards 
England; walked along from city to city; 
examined mankind more nearly; and, if 

79 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

I may so express it, saw both sides of the 
picture." 

In 1755, while Goldsmith, at the age 
of twenty-seven, was making his wander- 
year, war with France had begun, and 
had brought about a number of notable 
happenings in America. 

Interest in the campaigns had probably 
caused the establishment of the North 
Carolina and the Connecticut Gazettes, 
so named in imitation of that Venetian 
paper which sold for a small coin, the 
gazetta, and thereby became the god- 
father of the whole group of "gazettes" 
that have followed. 

The expedition of General Braddock 
against Fort Du Quesne is one of the 
happenings that is more notable for its 
results than for itself. Disregarding the 
advice of those colonists who knew the 
Indian and his methods of warfare, pay- 
ing no attention to the wise warnings of 
those who foresaw the difficulties of his 
enterprise. General Braddock declared: 
"These savages may indeed be a for- 

80 



Student and Wander Days 

midable enemy to your raw American 
militia, but upon the King's regular and 
disciplined troops, sir, it is impossible 
they should make any impression." These 
very words were used to Benjamin Frank- 
lin, when he tried to tell Braddock of the 
danger that the Indians would ambus- 
cade his long line of march. Franklin 
tells us of the panic flight that followed, 
and history gives to Washington, serving 
as a volunteer on Braddock's staff, the 
credit of bringing oflF the few survivors. 
Braddock lost two-thirds of his forces, 
and even the rear guard under Colonel 
Dunbar retreated after destroying the 
stores and ammunition. Franklin shrewdly 
writes: "This whole transaction gave us 
Americans the first suspicion that our 
exalted idea of the prowess of British 
regular troops had not been well founded." 
To this same period belongs the expul- 
sion from Acadia of the French settlers, 
as described in Longfellow's "Evange- 
line." From the "Evangeline" point of 
view, this was a piece of heartless and 

8i 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

revolting cruelty, but when it is remem- 
bered that these French settlers were 
really under a pledge of neutrality, and 
yet that through their alliance with the 
Indian tribes they made themselves ex- 
ceedingly troublesome and even dangerous 
to the English, it may be seen that the 
necessities of war required their removal 
and deportation. The method of removal, 
of course, is open to criticism, but one can 
hardly blame the English authorities if 
they considered that these settlers by 
their treachery had forfeited the right to 
consideration. 

There were a number of engagements 
and expeditions during this colonial war- 
fare, resulting in the building of various 
strongholds, such as the fort erected at 
the head of Lake George and those that 
were put up at Oswego; and the efforts 
of the militia were instrumental in bring- 
ing about a mutual reliance among the 
thirteen colonies that was to render their 
opposition to the mother country for- 
midable and effective. The control of 

82 



Student and Wander Days 

affairs in Pennsylvania, as the result of 
the disputes in the legislature concern- 
ing supplies and preparations for war, was 
relinquished by the society of Friends, 
and Quaker rule of that community was 
thus ended. 

This year appeared Johnson's diction- 
ary, that mighty monument to the learn- 
ing of one man, and one of those with 
whom Goldsmith was afterwards to enjoy 
an intimate friendship. 

In Europe the year was notable for that 
stupendous and disastrous earthquake at 
Lisbon on the first of November, a date 
at which Goldsmith was still in Europe, 
probably in Italy. The city had been 
visited before by many shocks of earth- 
quake, but these were comparatively trivial. 
From an old encyclopedia we take the 
following brief description of this un- 
parallelled disaster: 

"In six minutes over sixty thousand 
persons perished. The sea first retired, 
and then rolled in fifty feet above its usual 
level; the largest mountains in Portugal 

83 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

rocked and split asunder, sending forth 
flames and clouds of dust. In Morocco, 
it is said that the earth opened and swal- 
lowed up ten thousand persons, with their 
homes, and closed over them. The shock 
was felt in nearly all of Europe, in North 
Africa, and even in the West Indies." 

It will be seen that even the destruction 
wrought by the eruption of Mount Pelee in 
our own times was less appalling, though 
there are recorded a few disasters as great 
— such, for instance, as the earthquake 
in 1693, in Sicily, which is said to have 
destroyed a hundred thousand persons. 
The contemporary descriptions of the de- 
struction of Lisbon are most horrifying, 
but are not unlike those of similar events 
in every age. 

Perhaps this sentence of one eye-witness 
best describes the inhabitants' state of 
mind: "Nobody wept," says he; "it was 
beyond tears; they ran hither and thither, 
delirious with horror and astonishment, 
crying. 'Misericorde, the world's at an 
end.'" 

S4 



Student and Wander Days 

The horror of this disaster appealed so 
strongly to the English that Parliament 
voted a hundred thousand pounds for 
the relief of the Lisbon sufferers. 



85 



CHAPTER VI 

SEEKING A LIVELIHOOD 

It was probably something more than 
a coincidence that the month of February- 
seemed at this time to be fraught with 
changes for Goldsmith. In February of 
1749 he finished his career at Trinity; in 
February of 1754 he left England for the 
Continent; in February of the next year 
he left Leyden and wandered through 
Flanders, France, and Switzerland; in 
February of 1756, on the first of the month, 
we find him stepping ashore at Dover, 
after two years' absence from his native 
land. Where there is a touch of rest- 
lessness in the blood, a gypsy spirit, it is 
awakened to life by the coming of spring; 
and, besides, it is the end of winter that 
makes changes seem more feasible by 
inviting to outdoor life. 

86 



Seeking a Livelihood 

It is noted that he had not a farthing 
in his pocket upon his return to England, 
but Httle is said of the wealth he had 
acquired by observation of mankind and 
the world; and although the lack of 
money was something of an inconvenience, 
the journey to London was no more diffi- 
cult than many a stage in his European 
wanderings. 

Within a fortnight, perhaps by the aid 
of his music, he entered London, a few 
months over twenty-seven years of age, 
and thereafter found the world of London 
wide enough to satisfy even his nomadic 
spirit; for in London for the rest of his 
life he remained, except for a brief visit 
to Paris, brought about probably by the 
wish to accompany some friends. 

It must be remembered, in estimating 
Goldsmith's state of destitution, that his 
long-suffering uncle Contarine was dead, 
that his family were unable or unwilling 
to assist him, and that he was an Irish- 
man, a circumstance he declares "suffi- 
cient to keep me unemployed." A pen- 

87 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

niless, friendless vagabond, he was put 
to every shift to make a bare Hving. 

We are tempted again to make con- 
jectures of his adventures, based upon 
the "Adventures of a Strolling Player," 
which he afterwards wrote, probably draw- 
ing a picture from his own experiences in 
this year of 1756. Another place in which 
he has made use of the recollections of 
these days of hardship is in the story told 
by George Primrose to his father, the 
Vicar, in Chapter XX of his novel. 

It would be a serious mistake to follow 
either account too literally, for, certainly, 
if we cannot rely upon Goldsmith's ac- 
counts in his letters of his actual adven- 
tures, we must beware of taking his avowed 
fiction for his autobiography. The ingen- 
uity that has been expended to find out 
just exactly what Goldsmith was about in 
the first two weeks after his return to Eng- 
land has been largely wasted. He may 
have asked for employment with a country 
apothecary, or have performed with a 
troupe of strolling players; he may have 

88 



Seeking a Livelihood 

simply begged his way; but the period 
was so short it is of only the slightest 
importance how he covered the few miles 
to London. 

Under stress of dire need for reaching 
the city, it would seem he could have been 
there within three or four days; and that 
he took until the middle of February sim- 
ply showed that he had no reason for 
hurrying to the metropolis. And when 
he at last found himself in what Forster 
calls the ** lonely, terrible streets of Lon- 
don," he was, if anything, less likely to 
find employment than when making his 
way along the road travelled so many 
years before by pilgrims returning from 
the shrine of Thomas a Becket to London. 

Irving tells us how, in later years, Gold- 
smith "startled a polite circle" by dating 
an anecdote as happening about the time 
he "lived among the beggars of Axe 
Lane." These references to his past life 
are compared by his biographer, Forster, 
to Napoleon's similar references to his 
having been a young and obscure lieu- 

89 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

tenant, when, as Emperor, he was hob- 
nobbing with crowned heads. 

His earlier days in London seem to have 
been spent as a vagabond. We first find 
him at regular work earning a bare exis- 
tence as an usher, or under teacher, in a 
school, a position he secured under an 
assumed name, owing to the kindly recom- 
mendation of one of his old friends in the 
Irish university. 

This second step seems more dignified, 
though little more remunerative, for as 
under tutor in a second-rate school, he 
was so bullied by the master, tormented 
by the boys, and hated by the mistress, 
that he makes George Primrose declare 
he had rather be an under turnkey at 
Newgate. 

He next tried to get work from the 
apothecaries as a maker of pills, plasters, 
and potions, and then, by promotion, he 
became a sort of physician in a small way. 
His fees were little or nothing, since his 
patients were as poor as himself, and at 
last he is glad to take the suggestion of a 

90 



Seeking a Livelihood 

printer patient and to call upon Mr. Samuel 
Richardson, the printer novelist. From 
Richardson he secured work as a reader 
and corrector of the press, and from an old 
fellow-student. Dr. Farr, we learn that 
Goldsmith was then engaged in the com- 
position of a tragedy that, so far as is 
known, was never completed. Farr tells 
us how Goldsmith came into his rooms 
one morning before breakfast to read 
aloud his play, and how humbly he crossed 
out whatever his friend found faulty, 
until, learning that the novelist, Richard- 
son, had heard part of the tragedy. Dr. 
Farr refused to criticise the work. 

That this dramatic effort was only one 
of his wild projects, we learn from Farr's 
recollection that Goldsmith declared dur- 
ing the same visit that he had thought of 
going to make an expedition for the pur- 
pose of deciphering some Arabic inscrip- 
tions, for no better reason than that a salary 
of fifteen hundred dollars per year had 
been left by some one for that purpose. 

Certain more important experiences as 

91 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

a teacher occurred subsequent to his read- 
ing for Richardson, and the work as de- 
scribed in the pages of this authority seems 
not uncongenial. We are told that, as 
tutor, Goldsmith was very fond of practi- 
cal jokes, enjoyed his own, and bore with- 
out resentment those played upon him in 
return. We have a specimen of one of 
Goldsmith's tricks, but it is of so trivial 
a nature that it not worth quoting, being 
merely the writing of a pretended letter 
from a servant maid to her discarded 
suitor. 

A second anecdote tells of the making 
of a candle out of Cheshire cheese and 
challenging some dupe to devour candles. 
Goldsmith eating the one made of cheese, 
while his adversary was eating a tallow 
candle. 

We shall lose nothing by forgetting 
these; but we may remember to his credit 
that he is said to have used his meagre pay 
to relieve beggars and to buy sweetmeats 
for children. 

These anecdotes of his stay at the school 
are told on the authority of Miss Milner, 

92 



Seeking a Livelihood 

daughter of the proprietor, but there is 
every reason to suppose this time one of 
the hardest and most disagreeable periods 
in Goldsmith's lonely and cheerless life. 
Not only do we learn his opinion of the 
under teacher's sufferings from the accounts 
of George Primrose, in the "Vicar," but 
also from the essay on "Education" in 
his little periodical "The Bee." The 
latter contains recommendations for in- 
creasing the pay to teachers and for giv- 
ing them more importance in the com- 
munity. The arguments in this essay 
are not much less applicable to-day than 
they were in Goldsmith's time; the pro- 
fession of teaching, which should be one 
of the most respected and best paid, is 
still almost at the foot of the list, whether 
as regards fame or money. Only its re- 
quirements have been notably raised. 

This employment at Dr. Milner's 
brought about the first serious attempts 
of Dr. Goldsmith to become an author. 
Milner wrote for a periodical called The 
Monthly Review, but, happening, because 

93 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

of a rival periodical, to need more review- 
ers, Griffiths, the editor of this periodical, 
heard of Goldsmith, or met him at Mil- 
ner's table, asked for a specimen of his 
work, and at last engaged his services for 
a year at a salary large enough to permit 
him to give all his time to writing. 

Forster declares that this literary work 
was taken up by Goldsmith as a last 
resource. It seems more likely that to a 
man sensitive, ungainly, often the butt 
of ill-natured joking, impatient of authority, 
even a poor living, with the independence 
that belongs to the profession of a writer, 
was far preferable to the position that he 
held in the Milher school. 

Forster points his criticism by a brief 
list of the writers of the time and their mis- 
fortunes, telling us how Fielding had died 
poor a few years before, how Collins had 
lost both life and reason even more recently, 
while Smollett was toughly fighting for 
his every day's existence (being chief 
reviewer for the periodical that rivaled 
Griffiths's), and Johnson, within but a 

94 



Seeking a Livelihood 

few months, had been imprisoned for 
debt. The only exception to this cata- 
logue of failure was Richardson, and even 
he was earning money by trade, being 
printer as well as author. 

A reason for this suflFering is given in 
the state of letters. The old fashion of 
writing under the patronage of a dis- 
tinguished name was almost past: a 
proof of this that will never be forgotten 
is Johnson's bitterly sarcastic letter to 
the lord who offered his patronage only 
after the Dictionary had shown itself able to 
thrive without a patron. 

Together with his change of profession 
came a change of residence, for Goldsmith 
was boarded and lodged by Griffiths, the 
bookseller and editor of The Monthly Re- 
view. Although the contract drawn for a 
year lasted no longer than five months, this 
was the real beginning of Goldsmith's life 
as a professional author, and in this pro- 
fession he continued to work until the end 
of his days. 

The year 1757 becomes another mile- 
stone in the story of his life, standing by 

95 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

which we may turn to look about us in order 
to understand something of the country 
through which he has been plodding on- 
ward. 

In the year 1756, when Goldsmith ar- 
rived in London, the building of White- 
field's Methodist Chapel was just begun, 
and it was opened the end of the same 
year, a notable sign of the progress of 
Methodism. There was not any other 
new building of importance in the city, 
except the King's Bench Prison, until 

1758- 

In the summer of 1756 public attention 
was concentrated upon the trouble with 
France, war being declared about the 
middle of May — the Seven Years' War. 
The other important events of this time 
included the calling to office of William 
Pitt, the failure of Admiral Byng to re- 
lieve Minorca, when sent to drive away 
the French fleet, and his subsequent trial 
and execution, which Voltaire wittily de- 
clared was ''pour encourager les autres'* 
to exhibit the enterprise lacking in this 
innocent scapegoat. 

96 



Seeking a Livelihood 

In India the year was notable for the 
horrors, still remembered, of the Black 
Hole of Calcutta, where the Nabob of 
Bengal (possibly by the malice or ignorance 
of his soldiery) imprisoned nearly a hun- 
dred and fifty men and women, of whom 
only twenty-three were alive in the morning. 

An event which attracted probably little 
attention at the time was Mr. Canton's 
scientific study of the magnetic needle, 
when four thousand experiments were 
made to find the cause of its daily varia- 
tion. But it was full of importance for 
the future. 

In 1757 occurred the most important 
of Clive's campaigns, the ever memorable 
victory of the battle of Plassey which as- 
sured to the English control over India. 
The British forces under Clive amounted 
to no more than three thousand men, and 
they decisively defeated the Bengal army of 
over fifty thousand. The battle was fought 
under two young men, Clive being thirty- 
one years of age, and his opponent Surajah 
Dowlah, being less than twenty. 

97 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

The fall of Calcutta and the subsequent 
outrage upon the English prisoners caused 
the sending of an expedition under the 
command of Clive to punish the Sura j ah. 
Clive began so vigorously that when he 
had recovered Calcutta, the Nabob made 
overtures for peace, and the negotiation 
that followed is said by Macaulay to have 
been the beginning of Clive's career as a 
statesman. When negotiations were un- 
satisfactory, military operations were re- 
sumed. But the rapid changes from dip- 
lomacy to war and back again require 
all of Macaulay's skill to weld them into a 
clear narrative, and we have to do only 
with the fact that at last the forces of the 
two powers were drawn up against one 
another near Plassey, and at sunrise on 
the 23rd of June, the Indian infantry with 
fifty pieces of ordinance drawn by oxen 
and pushed by elephants — fifteen thou- 
sand cavalry and forty thousand infantr}'' 
— advanced against the English army con- 
sisting of a thousand Englishmen and two 
thousand natives. The English artillery 

98 



Seeking a Livelihood 

was aimed so well that many of the Sura- 
jah's officers were killed. A treacherous 
lieutenant suggested that he retreat, and 
this advice being taken, his fate was sealed. 
In an hour, Surajah Dowlah's army was 
dispersed, and Macaulay tells us that "with 
the loss of twenty-two soldiers killed and 
fifty wounded, Clive had scattered an 
army of nearly sixty thousand men, and 
had subdued an empire larger and more 
populous than Great Britain." Surajah 
Dowlah fled in disguise, was captured by 
the new Nabob whom Clive supported, 
and was put tp death. 

Merely to complete the record we name 
certain contemporary happenings. 

The death of William Whitehead, on 
December 19, while Goldsmith was still 
busy with his hack-writing in the house 
of Mr. Griffiths, would not be necessary 
to note except that this William White- 
head was then poet laureate. 

The effect of the Seven Years' War upon 
America was widespread, for, as usual, 
the French authorities never scrupled to 

99 
LOFa 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

employ the Indians against the English 
settlers, and the passing of the control in 
Pennsylvania from Quaker hands is em- 
phasized by the offer of large rewards by 
the Pennsylvania Assembly for Indian 
prisoners and scalps. But in 1757 comes 
a proof that the Quakers still retained 
considerable influence, since they are cred- 
ited with a peace signed at Lancaster be- 
tween Pennsylvania, the Six Nations, and 
the Delaware Indians. 

The Marquis de Montcalm, in 1756, 
captured Oswego, and thus gained con- 
trol of Lake Ontario. The next year the 
same General captured Fort William Henry 
which had been built by Sir William John- 
son two years before this time, and here 
occurred that massacre of prisoners that 
so horrified all the English colonists. 
But when, in 1757, William Pitt becomes 
Prime Minister of Great Britain, greater 
vigor is at once shown in the prosecution 
of the war in America. 

At this time Philadelphia is the largest 
of the American cities, exceeding New 

100 



Seeking a Livelihood 

York by a thousand inhabitants and 
having a total of thirteen thousand. In 
the census of 1900 there are a hundred 
cities having over thirty-five thousand 
inhabitants, and the smallest of these, 
Birmingham, Alabama (a city that has 
grown with surprising rapidity since), 
had nearly three times the population of 
America's greatest city when Goldsmith 
began his career as a writer in London. 



loi 



CHAPTER VII 

THE LONDON TO WHICH GOLDSMITH CAME 

During the period of Goldsmith's liter- 
ary life in London there were comparatively 
few occurrences in the world outside that 
were of sufficient moment to influence 
profoundly the social lives of English 
citizens, though as a nation England 
wonderfully flourished. 

Frederic Harrison, in his essay upon 
the "Eighteenth Century," declares that 
these years of "non-invention and rest 
are, for Englishmen at least, typical years" 
of the time. It was a period of industrial 
prosperity, when English commerce flour- 
ished and English industry was diversified 
and profitable. The public measures of 
the time were meant to further the in- 
terest of the great middle class, rather 

102 



The London to which Goldsmith Came 

than that of the crowd or the aristocracy. 
The increase of wealth at home, causing 
many enterprising men to go into trade, 
stimulated British commerce, and as an 
aid to its extension brought about the 
acquisition of much territory. 

Again to quote Harrison, from the eigh- 
teenth to the nineteenth century, the num- 
ber of subjects ruled by the king of Eng- 
land increased fifty-fold or more. America, 
the Indies, and, later, the island-conti- 
nent of Australia, were the chief fields for 
the development of English trade. 

Becoming a country of manufactures 
rather than of farming, naturally sent the 
population to large centres, increasing 
towns and cities and causing the decay of 
small hamlets and country villages. Back 
of all this change in material things were 
the men of brains who made it possible; 
men of science, inventors, philosophers, 
and even the despised scribblers who were 
teaching the many so as to render them 
more capable of taking part in the great 
improvements of the time. 

103 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

The general education of the people 
was undoubtedly brought about by the 
press, and no inconsiderable part of that 
education was due to the broadening of 
mind fostered by such writers as Gold- 
smith had become. 

The London in which he had now cast 
his lot was a small town when compared 
to the great metropolitan nation that has 
gathered around the nucleus that then 
existed. Goldsmith's London still hov- 
ered along the banks of the Thames, about 
the bridges, of which only London Bridge 
and Blackfriars were built, until late in 
the century; about the Cathedral, the 
Abbey, the Tower, and the highways the 
most immediate needs of the people had 
made. The architects of the time were just 
beginning to realize what must be the laws 
regulating the growth of their great city. 
The old gates still existed in Goldsmith's 
early London days, though their reason 
for being had ceased and they were in a 
few years to be up at auction. The whole 
city could be easily grasped in the minds 

104 



Trie London to which Goldsmith Came 

of its residents, and there was still possible 
toward London such local patriotism as 
we see strongly developed in Samuel 
Johnson and in William Hogarth, the 
one a scholar and the other a satirist. 

Not beyond a short walk from the river 
the farm-like suburbs began abruptly, 
and even within the line of the city walls 
the gardens that made Shakespeare's Lon- 
don beautiful and granted their quiet to 
Milton yet had representatives in all quar- 
ters of the city save its very centre. 

Owing to the small number of stories 
in most of the houses, the population was 
far short of what the same area of city 
property accommodates at the present 
time. The neat paving now looked upon 
as indispensable in all cities of the slightest 
pretention, was then confined to a few of 
the busiest thoroughfares. 

There was comparatively little traffic, 
goods and merchandise being conveyed 
in great wagons not unlike those that we 
have seen used by the emigrants upon 
our Western plains. Carriages were so 

105 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

rare as to be used only by the richest nobles 
or by great officials. Sedan-chairs, or 
small boxes carried by long poles thrust 
through staples at the side, gave fashion- 
able women or the more particular dan- 
dies a ready means of getting about when 
in full dress. 

The short breeches, long waistcoats, 
and coats without lapels, were the usual 
costume of men; and the sword was not 
rare on occasions of full dress, though 
the cane was beginning to take its place 
among men of the city. The costume is, 
in general, familiar to Americans from 
the pictures of our own colonial days, when 
of course much the same fashions were 
worn. 

The type of woman's costume of the 
time that occurs to us most readily is the 
short skirt, the over-dress, the close-fitting 
bodice, the mob cap, high-heeled shoes. 
All these are hardly strange enough to be 
unfamiliar. To judge by Hogarth's pic- 
tures, the women of the time were very 
fond of tying light shawls across their 

io6 



The Lo7tdon to which Goldsmith Came 

shoulders, and of covering their heads with 
caps or coifs; and their shawls, caps, and 
wraps were often of bright colors. The 
wearing of elaborate headdresses by the 
women, and absurd great wigs by the men, 
is a fashion most difficult for us to under- 
stand. 

History records a thousand inventions 
and discoveries giving us reasons for grati- 
tude to the greater men of this time. Such 
men and their achievements must not be 
forgotten when we call to mind the faults 
and demerits that have been lessened in 
our own times. Drinking was widespread 
and did not yet find it necessary to avoid 
public observation. Gambling was almost 
universal, and there was a general coarse- 
ness of public morals that we may see de- 
picted in the pages of^jthe- novelists, and 
the works of William Hogarth and the 
caricaturists of the day. ^^ 

There was, however, a public senti- 
ment arrayed against the worst evils. 
Something has been said already about 
Methodism, and this was but one form of 

107 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

the desire for better standards of living. It 
will be seen by reading the chronicles of 
the time, the biographies, the essays, the 
periodicals, that the greater part of the 
questions of the day dealt with matters 
of major or minor morals. 

Students of social conditions ascribe 
the characteristic tone that prevailed in 
English society at this time — the latter 
part of the eighteenth century — to the 
admiration, whether expressed or denied, 
for French standards. Of course there 
was still plenty of the English insularity 
that derided foreign ways, but the influence 
of the court and the aristocracy, of the 
literature and the stage, was in favor of 
the adoption of continental niceties in 
dress, behavior, and in matters of taste. 

The fashionable form of the literature 
of the day was the essay, and it requires 
but few steps to trace the parentage of 
Dr. Johnson's "Rambler" or "Idler" 
and Goldsmith's "Bee," back through the 
"Spectator" and Sir WilHam Temple, to 
the French who succeeded%jr imitated 
Montaigne. 

lo8 



The London to which Goldsmith Came 

It must not be supposed that the Eng- 
lish forms of these fashions in Hfe and 
in Hterature directly imitated the French, 
but rather that they were inspired by them. 
Another channel of this influence lay 
through Scotland, where political ques- 
tions had so recently brought about a close 
connection between the Scotch Jacobites 
and the French who favored the House of 
Stuart. 

We are told that it was a period when 
every day or two brought a new periodi- 
cal — a state of things that it is not difficult 
for us of to-day to understand, since we 
see something very similar in our own 
time. The success of a few magazines 
invites to speculation those who do not 
understand that in the long run there is 
no holding the public except by genuine 
merit, and that genuine merit in litera- 
ture must ever be a rare thing. 

Forster tells us that a few years before 
Goldsmith's beginning work with the Grif- 
fiths, fifty-five papers were regularly pub- 
lished every week. The periodical Mr. 

109 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

Griffiths published was called "The 
Monthly Review," and we are told by one 
of Goldsmith's letters that the publisher 
and his wife had no scruple in revising his 
copy. And that this was publicly known 
we learn from a sarcastic criticism by 
Smollett, who, in contrasting his own 
"Critical Review" with Goldsmith's peri- 
odical declared that the principal writers 
of his magazine "are unconnected with 
booksellers, unawed by old women, and 
independent of each other." 

From a copy of the "Review" which had 
been marked by the publisher, it is pos- 
sible to pick out a few of Goldsmith's 
articles, but none of them seem to be of 
enough importance to be worth their res- 
cue from the mass of unsigned articles 
except by the student of Goldsmith's 
literary growth. His estimate of the value 
of Burke's "Essay on the Sublime and 
the Beautiful" was just, dignified, and 
showed discrimination, and, as we know 
from Burke's own mouth, gave the bril- 
liant Irish essayist much pleasure. Though 

no 



The London to which Goldsmith Came 

we need not consider the value of Gold- 
smith's review of a book by Jonas Hanway, 
the mention of that author's name will 
recall to all the fact that he was the first 
man who dared to carry an umbrella in 
the streets of London despite the jeering 
of the populace. 

Goldsmith's hours of work with the 
Griffiths do not seem to have been long, 
as he began work at about nine o'clock 
in the morning and wrote until two. He 
was mainly occupied in writing reviews, 
but, either through dissatisfaction with 
his magazine work, or because of a per- 
sonal quarrel, his employer decided to 
give Goldsmith's regular work to another 
man named Kenrick, and Goldsmith was 
set adrift, though he still did some work 
for the "Review." 

We find that his lodging at this time 
was a wretched garret near Salisbury 
Square, though the exact place where he 
lived is not known. 

There were in London a number of 
coffee-houses that served much the same 

III 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

purpose as the cafes of Paris, and at the 
Temple Exchange Coffee-house, near Tem- 
ple Bar, Goldsmith met his friends, and, 
Howitt tells us, even prescribed now and 
then for a patient. This fact is known 
from several letters he dated from the 
coffee-house, and the fact that he fre- 
quented it, added to its being the spot at 
which the great London fire stopped, 
formed its titles to fame for more than a 
generation after Goldsmith's death. 

It is not known exactly how long he 
continued translating from the French 
and doing other pieces of hack-work for 
Griffiths and others, but he is believed 
to have returned to his school work for 
a short time in the intervals of being a 
Grub Street author. We next trace him 
to a lodging not much more aristocratic 
in Green Arbour Court, Old Bailey, and 
though there was a little material advan- 
tage in the change, he at least was his own 
master and could not longer be reproved 
by his employer for leaving his desk before 
the day was done. 

112 



The London to which Goldsmith Came 

It was during his occupation of this 
garret that his brother Charles, believing, 
as Forster tells us, that Oliver must have 
achieved success, since he no longer de- 
manded aid from home, came to share 
his brother's prosperity, only to find him 
as poor as himself. Here, by the aid of 
such hack-work as he could obtain, he 
lived for two years or more without accom- 
plishing much that was notable in any 
respect. He had no morTey, no reputa- 
tion, and no prospects, but his letters 
show that he still kept his inborn "knack 
of hoping." 

The next step that marked a change in 
his circumstances was an attempt to secure 
an appointment as a medical officer in 
India, but before telling of this enterprise 
we will glance for a few moments at the 
events of the great world about him. 

A notable event in the history of Lon- 
don City was the clearing of London 
Bridge. In the medieval pictures of the 
Bridge we shall see that it is lined from 
end to end with tall buildings that made 

113 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

up a little city in themselves. Thus in a 
view of London in 1616 we shall find 
buildings, of six stories or more, filling 
the whole length of the viaduct from one 
end to the other, and the popularity of 
these places for residence or storage 
appears from the fact that most of 
the other houses near by are no taller 
than three or four stories. As the traffic 
across the river, increased, having become 
entirely too great for ferriage, the demand 
for a wider roadway was irresistible, and 
the old-fashioned houses and shops had 
to be removed. 

The growth of London at one period 
or another may be to a great extent esti- 
mated by its effect upon Thames traffic. 
In the earliest times the river was really 
superior in importance to the city upon 
its banks. In the Elizabethan days the 
importance of city and river was about 
equal in men's minds. The sports and 
outings of the Londoners were largely 
shaped by the nearness to the Thames, 
and we read of pageants upon its waters, 

114 



The London to which Goldsmith Came 

of fugitives escaping from shore to ship, 
as is described by Scott in "The Fortunes 
of Nigel/' and of adventurous courtiers 
risking their hves by " shooting" the 
rapids that run through the arches of the 
Bridge. This was considered so perilous 
that there is an old London proverb say- 
ing that "the Bridge was for wise men to 
go over and for fools to go under." 

In Goldsmith's time traffic across the 
river had made a second bridge necessary, 
and the watermen who plied upon its sur- 
face were become of less importance, 
though they for many years formed a 
characteristic part of the London popu- 
lace. 

From the American point of view the 
most powerful figure in the history of Eng- 
land during these few years of Goldsmith's 
"penny-a-liner" work was William Pitt, 
who had been made Secretary of State 
during Goldsmith's first year in London, 
and who was at first in favor of thoroughly 
organizing an English militia that would 
make the employment of foreign merce- 

115 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

naries unnecessary. Although removed 
from office in 1757, Pitt soon came into 
power once more and gave every energy 
to destroying the power of the French. 
His course of action (apparently incon- 
sistent with his earlier views), was to sup- 
ply money to Frederick the Great in order 
that the French might be kept busy fight- 
ing Prussia, while the English fleet con- 
trolled the sea and English soldiers were 
sent to aid the colonists in America. A 
vigorous campaign was fought against 
Louisburg and Cape Breton, and these 
posts, as well as Fort Du Quesne, were 
taken. A memorial of the last victory 
and of Pitt remains to-day in the name, 
Pittsburgh, given to the old Fort Du Quesne 
when it passed into the control of England. 
In these days Philadelphia had a popu- 
lation of a thousand more than New York 
could boast. New York's figures being 
twelve thousand. It is hard to realize 
that this shows New York to have been 
little larger than Cripple Creek, Colorado, 
is to-day, and that Philadelphia was about 
the present size of Denison, Texas. 

116 



The London to which Goldsmith Came 

But, of course, in estimating the mean- 
ing of these figures, we must remember 
that the relative importance of these cities 
to the nation was probably even greater 
than to-day. The American colonies then, 
according to the historian Bancroft, in- 
cluded about a million and a half of peo- 
ple, and therefore New York City held 
about one one-hundred-and-twenty-fifth 
of the inhabitants. To-day, New York 
City holds one-twentieth of all the in- 
habitants, and yet occupies a position 
of probably less importance toward 
the country at large because of the rela- 
tive growth of Chicago, Philadelphia, 
Boston, St. Louis, Baltimore, Cleveland, 
Buffalo, San Francisco, Cincinnati, and 
even of Pittsburgh, now a city of three 
hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, 
then little more than a tiny outpost fort 
in the woods. 

The American victories in 1758, although 
dimmed by the failure to take Ticon- 
deroga, were extended the next year, when 
not only Ticonderoga, but Fort Niagara, 

117 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

was taken by the British, and Wolfe's 
magnificent victory over Montcalm on 
the Plains of Abraham resulted in the 
surrender of Quebec and gave Canada 
to England. Meanwhile the French had 
been defeated also by the great Rodney 
and by Hawke, and were compelled to 
give up their hope of invading England. 
On the Continent, also, the British were 
successful, winning the battle of Minden 
by the aid of the Hanoverians. 

These brilliant victories are by John 
Richard Green attributed largely to the 
patriotic spirit aroused in England by 
Pitt. Macaulay says, "a succession of 
victories undoubtedly brilliant and, as it 
was thought, not barren, raised to the 
highest point the fame of the minister to 
whom the conduct of the war had been in- 
trusted. . . The captured standards were 
borne in triumph from Kensington Palace 
to the city, and were suspended in St. 
Paul's Church amidst the roar of guns 
and kettledrums, to the shouts of an im- 
mense multitude." We may be certain 
Goldsmith was in the witnessing throng. 



The London to which Goldsmith Came 

And when the fall of Quebec was an- 
nounced in London, we are told in the 
same brilliant essay upon Earl Chatham, 
that every one talked and thought only of 
Pitt. In a few pages Macaulay gives us 
a most brilliant review of those events 
that followed the infusion of patriotism 
into the armies and navies of England. 
He tells how Canada was subjugated, the 
French fleets destroyed, and a mighty 
empire founded in India. 

And with all these brilliant achieve- 
ments abroad there went, at least for a 
time, the greatest prosperity at home. 
The merchants found their trade thriv- 
ing, both in commerce and in manufac- 
tures. In his own glowing words Macau- 
lay, like Green, finds the inspiration for 
these glorious years drawn from the splen- 
did patriotism of Pitt. We must quote 
a few sentences, even though every reader 
will go to Macaulay for himself. "The 
ardor of his (Pitt's) soul," Macaulay 
writes, "had set the whole kingdom on 
fire. It inflamed every soldier who dragged 

119 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

a cannon up the Heights of Quebec, and 
every sailor who boarded the French ships 
among the rocks of Brittany. . . The fops 
and intriguers of Versailles were appalled 
and bewildered by his vigor, and panic 
spread through all ranks of French society. 
Our enemies soon considered it a settled 
thing that they were always to be beaten. 
Thus victory begot victory, until at last 
wherever the forces of the two nations 
met, they met with disdainful counte- 
nances on the one side and with a craven 
fear on the other." 

One is disposed to resent as boastful 
these two adjectives, but it should be 
remembered that the French were under 
the command of the aristocracy of the 
old regime, men whose traditions alone 
made them respectable, that there was 
in the French army and navy little oppor- 
tunity for even the highest capacity if the 
possessor was not of noble birth, whereas 
the leaders of the English were sons or 
grandsons of those who had come through 
a great struggle for the rights which the 

120 



The London to which Goldsmith Came 

French were able to secure only after a 
conflict that was still a whole generation 
in the future. There was among the 
English a sense of individuality, an awaken- 
ing of ambition that was entirely absent 
among the French. To express the feel- 
ing of the English in an English phrase, 
every soldier felt that he was fighting "ow 
his own." 

Such being the inspiration of the Eng- 
lish, victories came so thick and fast that 
there is no room to record them here. 
The victory of Wolfe was followed within 
a year by one as decisive against the 
French in India at Wandewash, near 
Madras. It was fought in 1760, the 
year in which George II. died. Under 
Colonel Eyre Coote, the British soldiers 
conquered a French force, both being 
without native allies, and this battle greatly 
impressed the natives with the valor of 
the British, which hitherto they had sup- 
posed to be inferior to that of the French. 
This battle in India is often coupled with 
the taking of Quebec, as determining the 
superiority of Great Britain over France 
in America and in Asia. 

121 



CHAPTER VIII 

ESTABLISHED AS A WRITER 

As these events bring us almost to the 
end of 1760, we must return for a while 
to the short and simple annals of poor 
Goldsmith, who was making a fight for 
life in his garret, dependent only upon 
the uncertain earnings that came from 
translating, odd jobs of reviewing, and 
miscellaneous contributions to the press. 

In the early part of 1758 he had pub- 
lished "The Memoirs of a Protestant 
Doomed to the Galleys of France for his 
Religion." This had been written under 
an assumed name, and was a translation 
made for Griffiths, for whom he had also 
translated a novel. 

But more important than these was the 
essay, "An Enquiry into the State of 
Polite Learning in Europe," which was 

122 



Established as a Writer 

to come out under his own name. It ap- 
peared in 1759, and is said to have attracted 
attention, even in that time of many pub- 
lications. Dr. Johnson, having finished 
his dictionary, was pubHshing from 1758 
to 1760 the numbers of "The Idler," and 
not long after the appearance of Gold- 
smith's " Enquiry," more than one periodi- 
cal of a similar kind engaged Goldsmith's 
services. He wrote many charming essays 
for "The Bee," a little magazine that had 
been started by a bookseller named Wil- 
kie, and other articles for "The Ladies' 
Magazine" and "The Busybody," which 
three periodicals kept him enough em- 
ployed to make a great improvement in 
his circumstances. 

While the English authors were pleasing 
their public with like essays, we can see 
that the literature finding favor in America 
was of a more serious and a more practical 
caste, for these were days of "Poor 
Richard's Almanac," and saw also the pub- 
lication of Jonathan Edward's treatise on 
"Original Sin." 

123 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

There had been some attempt on Gold- 
smith's part to return to the medical pro- 
fession, and he went to Surgeons' Hall, 
then in the Old Bailey, to stand exami- 
nation. His usual luck followed him; 
he was rejected, and returned to litera- 
ture like a bad penny. The only trace of 
this attempt to be appointed to the staff 
of some hospital is found in an old record- 
book of the College of Surgeons that 
records the fact that Oliver Goldsmith 
was found "not qualified." 

When Goldsmith had it in mind to be 
examined for competency to take a post 
in the hospital, he was in such destitution 
that he had not a proper suit of clothes in 
which to appear before the examiners. 
His biographer, Forster, tells us that he 
made a bargain to review several books 
for his employer, Griffiths, provided Grif- 
fiths would become security for the needed 
clothing. Shortly after his rejection. Gold- 
smith seems to have pledged the books 
entrusted to him for review to raise money 
for the benefit of a poor woman, the wife 

124 



EstahlisheJ as a Writer 

of his landlord. Then came a demand 
from Griffiths for the books or for repay- 
ment, and a letter from Goldsmith shows 
us that he was unable to satisfy his creditor. 

The result of his quarrel with his pub- 
lisher had been to make Goldsmith anxious 
to close all transactions with him. To 
pay for the suit of clothes and free him- 
self of all debt to Griffiths, he agreed to 
write a Life of Voltaire to go with a new 
translation of Voltaire's poem, "The Hen- 
riade." These projects show us the sort 
of work upon which he was busied. 

In these last two or three years are to be 
noted the births of Nelson, of Noah Web- 
ster, of Burns, and of Schiller, and the 
deaths of Handel and the poet Collins. 
To these days also belongs the publication 
of Dr. Johnson's ponderous fairy-story, 
written in a time of affliction to pay his 
mother's burial charges, "Rasselas, Prince 
of Abyssinia," as well as the first volumes 
of Sterne's "Tristram Shandy," the mas- 
terpiece of irresponsibility. 

We have records also of visits to Gold- 
smith by Smollett, Dr. Percy, and John 

125 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

Newbery, the publisher. A trifling mat- 
ter not altogether without interest is that 
during 1760 names of residents were first 
put upon their doors in the city of London. 

In October of this year occurred the 
accession of George III., which may 
fairly be recorded as the opening of a new 
epoch, especially as it is marked in the 
life of Goldsmith by the publication of 
"The Citizen of the World," his first 
really ambitious production; by his change 
of residence to Wine Office Court; and by 
the beginning of his responsible author- 
ship, for hereafter there are no more 
attempts to give up the profession of letters. 

There are plenty of signs that Gold- 
smith is beginning to make a name for 
himself in his own circles. His "En- 
quiry" had attracted sufficient attention 
to make it worth while for Griffiths to 
hire his critic, Kendrick, to attack Gold- 
smith's first publication; and we may be 
sure that the book had some circulation 
and was to some extent quoted, since 
Garrick resented a passage where Gold- 

126 



Estallished as a Writer 

smith felt it necessary to complain of the 
neglect by managers of modern play- 
wrights. V/e know that Garrick's resent- 
ment was more than a passing irritation, 
since it caused him to reject Goldsmith's 
application for the secretaryship of the 
Society of Arts. 

Of the visits paid to him by Smollett and 
Newbery, we have already spoken, and 
their errand was to secure the rising writer 
as a contributor to the "British Maga- 
zine," a new monthly periodical. New- 
bery was also conducting a daily news- 
paper called "The Public Ledger," and 
for this Goldsmith wrote a series of letters 
inspired by the not altogether new notion 
of pretending to see his own world through 
the eyes of a foreigner, a species of satiri- 
cal literature of which, perhaps, the best 
known example is the "Persian Letters" 
that had been published nearly forty years 
before. Of the letters which Goldsmith 
wrote in the person of a learned Chinese, 
more than a hundred appeared, making up 
the book now known as "The Citizen of 

127 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

the World." It is to this series, probably, 
that we must ascribe the prosperity which 
enabled Goldsmith to move into Wine 
Office Court, to entertain his friends there, 
and to take some part in the social life of 
contemporary writers. 

A biography of Goldsmith from which 
one does not see quotations as often as the 
volume merits is that written by William 
Black, the novelist, for the "English Men 
of Letters" series. It seems to me that 
of all who have attempted to give us cor- 
rect ideas of Goldsmith's character. Black 
comes nearest to the truth. "The Citizen 
of the World" contains a number of 
imaginary characters, one of whom, "The 
Man in Black," described by Goldsmith 
as concealing a wonderfully kind heart 
under a forbidding exterior, is often re- 
garded as being Goldsmith's disguise for 
himself and his own opinions. But, as 
Black warns us, "to assume that any part 
of his history which he discloses to the 
Chinaman was a piece of autobiographical 
writing is a very hazardous thing. A 

128 



Established as a Writer 

writer of fiction must necessarily use such 
materials as have come within his own 
experience." We shall not be safe to 
assume that any trait of character is Gold- 
smith's simply because we find it assumed 
by one of those characters whom critics 
have identified with him. 

While he was still writing in Green 
Arbour Court, the glimpses that we have 
of his room and his occupations show that 
his lodgings were ill furnished, untidy, 
and uncomfortable, and his associates 
were those picked up haphazard in the 
neighborhood. We hear of his being com- 
pelled to sit upon his window-sill in order 
to give the single chair to his visitor. 

We learn from the poet Prior that in 
1820 certain old women declared that as 
little girls they had been treated to cake 
and sweetmeats by this poetical lodger, 
who played on the flute and who was fond 
of seeing them dance. The same au- 
thorities said that one of his favorite com- 
panions was a witty watchmaker who 
dwelt in the same court. A reminiscence 

129 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

of more vitality describes the coming of 
a publisher to Goldsmith's rooms in pur- 
suit of some promised literary work, a 
controversy between the poet and the 
man of business conducted through the 
locked door, and finally a good-natured 
siege, alleviated by an excellent dinner, 
that resulted in forcing the poet to keep 
his promise of delivering the expected 
work. 

But all these scenes are changed by the 
improvement in the writer's circumstances. 
The lodgings in Wine Oifice Court which 
he occupied for two years were said to be 
highly respectable, and we know them to 
have been frequented by many notables 
of the day. Dr. Percy, who compiled 
and edited the "Reliques of Ancient 
Poetry," was a frequent visitor, and, as 
Masson tells us, "not only does Gold- 
smith frequent the theatres and taverns, 
attend meetings of the Society of Arts, 
and drop in on Monday evenings at the 
famous Robin Hood Debating Society in 
Butcher Row, but even ^receives' in his 
own lodgings." 

130 



Established as a Writer 

On the last day of May, 1761, there is 
a memorable supper to which Samuel 
Johnson comes with Dr. Percy, and thus 
begins an intimacy that through the pen 
of Boswell has done more than anything 
to make Goldsmith better known to us. 
We are told that Dr. Johnson was dressed 
for the occasion with so much care and a 
nicety so unusual that Percy inquired the 
reason. Whereupon Johnson explained 
that Goldsmith had given as a justifica- 
tion for his own slovenly dress and lack 
of cleanliness the famous Johnson's dis- 
regard for appearances, and that this made 
the great lexicographer anxious to set a 
better example. 

During the two years, 1761 and 1762, 
he continued to live in Wine Office Court 
his life may be described as one of busy 
days of work for the booksellers and 
evenings of pleasant intercourse with his 
friends. The list of works which he pro- 
duced at this time comprised a pamphlet 
on that noted swindle, the Cock Lane 
Ghost, a History of Mecklenburg, a treat- 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

ise on the Art of Poetry, an abridgment of 
Plutarch, and three or four other produc- 
tions as varied. His earnings at this 
time amounted to about three hundred 
pounds a year, probably equivalent to 
three thousand dollars to-day. In fact, 
a chronicle of this portion of our author's 
life is little but a succession of literary 
grinding, followed by the earning and 
spending of small sums. Very often Gold- 
smith was in arrears of promised work, 
and then we have brief notes that passed 
between him and his publisher, usually 
Newbery, explaining why certain pieces 
of work were not accomplished. 

As often happens when prosperity suc- 
ceeds a period of poverty and depression. 
Goldsmith's health seems to have broken 
down for a while, and we hear that he 
went to Bath and Tunbury Wells, prob- 
ably in the hope that change of air and 
scene would do him good. From his 
visit to Bath Goldsmith brought back 
material for a new work. Not long be- 
fore had died the celebrated Beau Nash, 

132 



Established as a Writer 

who had for so long reigned as undis- 
puted monarch of social observances and 
master of ceremonies at that then most 
fashionable resort. "A Life of Nash" 
proved at once successful, and a second, 
edition v^as called for within two months. 
Instead of, or in addition to, his lodg- 
ings in London, Goldsmith also secured 
apartments in the suburbs of Islington, with 
or near his publisher, Newbery, under an 
arrangement that the rent, a sum equal to 
five hundred dollars a year to-day, should 
be paid by the publisher and deducted 
from Goldsmith's earnings. This coun- 
try retreat he seemed to keep for two or 
three years, and here, if at all, it was that 
he wrote the little story, "Goody Two- 
Shoes.'' Here, also, he composed his 
"History of England in a Series of Letters 
from a Nobleman to his Son." This was a 
compilation from several well-known his- 
tories, but had the charm of Goldsmith's 
exquisite clarity of style. This book also 
became very popular and brought its 
author a fair sum of money. 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

It was during his residence at Islington 
that Goldsmith made weekly visits to the 
Literary Club, where he was accustomed 
to meet Johnson, Burke, and Reynolds. 
During these same years it is believed that 
he also enjoyed the friendship of Hogarth. 
It is noticeable throughout his life that 
whenever Goldsmith comes into more 
than the merest contact with the men of 
his time, he never fails to form an intimate 
friendship with them; and those who repre- 
sent him as an under-sized, awkward, 
blundering oddity, might find it difficult 
to explain how he contrived to be wel- 
comed as a member of one of the most 
brilliant circles of his day. 

Neither were the men with whom he 
consorted such as to be blinded by present 
or future literary successes. Johnson was 
the very type of independence, Reynolds 
never hesitated to express himself freely 
and to act upon his own convictions, 
Hogarth was criticised by his friends often 
for his independence of temper, Garrick 
needed to court no man's favor; and yet 

134 



Established as a Writer 

these, the ablest men of their time, had 
no hesitation in recognizing Goldsmith's 
right to a place among themselves. 

Undoubtedly Goldsmith's growing inti- 
macy with the notable men of his time 
henceforth brought him into much closer 
acquaintance with all public affairs. 

The lodging at Islington was brought 
to a close under circumstances that in 
detail are differently described by dif- 
ferent authors; but in the main points they 
agree. It is said that Goldsmith, being 
very greatly in debt and unable to pro- 
cure any further advances from his pub- 
lisher, was, in the presence of a number 
of friends, called upon by his landlady 
for payment of the amount due her. In 
hastily considering his resources he men- 
tioned the manuscript of a novel which 
he had by him, and this story, "The 
Vicar of Wakefield," he turned over to 
Johnson as a means of raising cash. 

By Johnson the manuscript was taken 
to Francis Newbery, the nephew of Gold- 
smith's publisher, and sold outright for 

135 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

enough to satisfy the most pressing of 
Goldsmith's creditors. The price received 
for the book was sixty pounds, which, upon 
the same scale of reckoning as is used in 
estimating previous amounts, may be con- 
sidered as equal to six hundred dollars. 
The purchaser seems to have bought the 
book chiefly to oblige Johnson, for he kept 
it unpublished for nearly two years. 



136 



CHAPTER IX 

HE ENTERS LITERARY SOCIETY 

Goldsmith, by having made connec- 
tions with several pubHshers, and espe- 
cially with Newbery, now secured a posi- 
tion in the literary world that to one who 
had been a mere drudge ever since his 
return from Europe must have seemed 
one of ease and competence. He had 
written, it is true, only a few things that 
could be called important, but these were 
in a dignified style and had secured the 
approval of that small public which in 
those days was all-powerful in fixing an 
author's literary status. 

Perhaps the most influential of all was 
the opinion of Johnson. It is true that 
we know of Johnson's opinions mainly 
through Boswell, and it is no less true that 
everything tends to show a petty jealousy 

^Z7 



In the Days of Goldsmtth 

of Goldsmith on the part of Johnson's 
biographer. In giving us a general idea 
of the appearance and demeanor of Gold- 
smith at this time, Boswell's animus is 
evident. He takes pleasure in represent- 
ing the young Irishman as uncouth, homely, 
conceited, and presuming. But Boswell, 
above all things, was truthful, and he puts 
on record Johnson's warm praise of Gold- 
smith as a literary man, and his opinion 
that Goldsmith was one of the few who 
ranked highest then in England. *'Dr. 
Goldsmith," said Johnson, "is one of the 
first men we now have as an author, and he 
is a very worthy man, too." 

If we knew nothing of his literary rank 
we might be sure of his increased impor- 
tance in the world by the friendships he 
made. We find him, for instance, one 
of the guests at the table of Reynolds — a 
table worthy to be spread in Liberty 
Hall, for we are told that those who best 
knew the resources of the establishment 
were particularly careful to give their 
orders for food as soon as they arrived, 

138 



He Enters Literary Society 

knowing that if the order were delayed 
the provisions for the feast were Hkely to 
be entirely exhausted by the swarm of 
social locusts who settled down upon the 
land. 

There is a story of intimacy, how great 
we do not know, between Hogarth, the 
painter, and Goldsmith; and some of the 
author's biographers have attempted to 
magnify this intimacy by arguing the prob- 
ability that there was a similarity of tastes 
between him whose talent lay in depicting 
the everyday life of London at the time, 
and him whom we know to have been at 
work in constructing idyllic pictures of 
rural England. 

The similarity seems greatly strained. 
Hogarth was of a bitterly satirical temper. 
The complete lack of appreciation shown 
him had given the artist a morbid asser- 
tion of his own claims to eminence, where- 
as, although Goldsmith seems to have 
been but little behind Hogarth in appre- 
ciation of his own talent, there is never 
among his recorded speeches or in his 

139 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

writings any hint of the bitterness that so 
deeply tinged Hogarth's character. 

The pictures of Hogarth have become 
famihar from the volumes of engravings 
that have for many years been widely popu- 
lar, and in them we have a mirror held up 
to nature, or, rather, to the sophisticated 
life of the time, that reflects more shades 
than lights. No one can go through the 
volumes of engravings from Hogarth's 
paintings without a hearty sense of thank- 
fulness that we no longer are brought so 
closely into contact with scenes of vice, 
of misery, of cruelty, such as are portrayed 
by him. It is true that the satirist occa- 
sionally gives us a brighter picture. Now 
and then we learn that there were in those 
days men honored for philanthropy and 
individuals whose motives were pure and 
good; but these certainly seem to have 
been rarer than they are to-day. 

Thackeray tells us he dares not assert 
that the men of his time were better than 
their grandfathers, but he claims that 
they were at all events more decent. Brutal 

140 



He Enters Literary Society 

pleasures were less often flaunted before 
the eyes of the whole world, vices were no 
longer considered matters of course. And 
we may follow Thackeray's example so 
far as to say that the development since 
his time has been in the same direction of 
betterment. The surface, at least, is kept 
cleaner than in the days of Thackeray, 
and Thackeray's days were an improve- 
ment over those of Goldsmith. Respec- 
tability may not be the highest of the vir- 
tues; but if John Wesley were justified 
in ranking cleanliness near to godliness, 
we may consider respectability as at least 
an approximation to real virtue. 

There can be no better portrayal of 
these times than Boswell has given in his 
" Life of Johnson," a revivifying of old days 
that has really prolonged the age of John- 
son into something like immortality. Every 
reader of English literature can without 
difficulty call up the scenes of which in 
these days, the last half of the eighteenth 
century, Goldsmith formed a part. The 
appearance of London, with its cobble- 

141 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

paved streets, its swinging lanterns to give 
light, its sedan-chairs for passengers, its 
heavy trucks for merchandise, v^ould live 
in the pages of literature even had v^e not 
the works of many artists setting forth 
these scenes. We know the three-cor- 
nered hats, the straight-fronted coats with 
their wide skirts, the tie-wigs, the lace and 
ruffles of men's gala dress, the wide- 
spreading skirts, short bodice and elbow- 
sleeves, the towering coiffures of the fine 
ladies, no less than we know the mob cap, 
huge aprons, voluminous skirts, and loose 
bodices of the lower classes. The poets 
have kept alive for us the picturesque 
buckled shoon, the flowered waistcoats, 
the patches and powders — all the page- 
antry that typifies to us America in the 
colonial days, for we are almost down to 
our own Revolutionary times, and it must 
be repeated once more that in these old 
times, despite surface changes of minor 
fashion, the great mass of the people were 
conservative, and a form of hat or coat, a 
style of spencer or stomacher, remained 

142 



He Enters Literary Society 

in use sometimes for as long as a genera- 
tion. Clothes were made to last, and 
were handed down as heirlooms. This, 
while undoubtedly having a romantic 
side, had also a side that was neither nice 
nor hygienic. Paint and powder and 
perfume were used to conceal and dis- 
guise much that modern fashion, to say 
nothing of modern ideas of health, would 
never tolerate. 

Together with these crudities in ways 
of living, there existed certain niceties of 
etiquette and demeanor that may have 
been laid aside when no longer needed. 
When there is a real difference between 
classes, there is the less need of the bar- 
riers of etiquette and formality. If we 
are to trust the contemporary pictures of 
the life of the times, there was need for 
an artificial barrier between upper and 
lower classes, for certainly there was little 
to choose between them in the matter of 
true refinement. 

During the years from 1762 to 1765 it 
would require very careful study to deter- 

143 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

mine just how many months Goldsmith 
spent in each of the lodging-places he 
occupied. Part of the time we know that 
he was at Islington, and there are at least 
two addresses in London where he is known 
to have lived. There is no great signi- 
ficance attached to his change of address, 
such, for instance, as we have to attach to 
the changes of residence of Milton, a list 
of whose addresses would give a clue to 
his vicissitudes of fortune. 

With Goldsmith it seems to have been 
no more than a matter of convenience that 
at one time put him into rooms in London 
and at another into the upper story of 
Newbery's house or into the then suburb 
of Islington. His friends remained the 
same, and every month was bringing to 
him new acquaintances among those best 
worth knowing in London. 

Unfortunately we do not know how 
close was his intimacy with Hogarth, but 
there are at least two drawings that seem 
to show it was a close one. There is a 
portrait of Goldsmith showing him busy 

144 



He Enters Literary Society 

at his writing-table, wearing, after the 
fashion of the time, a great night-cap, a 
headgear that, though it seems to us en- 
tirely unnecessary, was requisite in days 
when men were accustomed to wear thick 
wigs, the absence of which must have 
made the head feel chilly. 

The nature of his life, wherever he 
lived, can be readily conjectured. His 
habits of work were never regular. We 
are told, for instance, by one friend that 
in composing "A History of England in 
Letters from a Nobleman to his Son,*' it 
was the author's custom first to read his 
authorities in the morning, and then to 
give up the rest of the day to what can be 
best expressed by the plain term "loaf- 
ing," until late in the evening. About 
bed-time his literary work began. What 
he had read during the morning was by 
that hour mentally digested through a 
process he would have stared to hear us 
call "unconscious cerebration." The ma- 
terial thus gathered and arranged came 
so easily to his mind as needed that we 

145 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

have Goldsmith's word to assure us that 
his writing the work in question was no 
more difficult than the composition of an 
ordinary personal letter. 

What was his custom in the case of this 
book was also, no doubt, his usual method 
of work. Nor was the method a bad one. 
Most of the writing done at this time for 
his living consisted of hackwork, such as 
the preparation of prefaces, the compiling 
of books of information, with an occa- 
sional bit of true literary workmanship. 
It is very doubtful whether work of this 
sort, v/here the mind in the absence of 
any strong impulse must be continually 
at work, can be accomplished in any 
other way. The conditions of such work 
are to-day better understood than in the 
past. Modern psychology is learning that 
literary composition must be done under 
the laws governing mental processes, and 
that these laws differ according to the 
nature of the work and of the mind of the 
worker. 

There is a most informing study of con- 
ditions of work in contrasting Anthony 

146 



He Enters Literary Society 

Trollope's "Autobiography'' with his "Life 
of Thackeray." TroUope's love for Thack- 
eray was not enough to give him an under- 
standing of the laws governing his friend's 
work. Capable himself of regular, forced 
production, he could not comprehend that 
Thackeray's mental constitution was as 
truly subject to systole and diastole as an 
intermittent spring. i 

As one might suspect from a compari- 
son of their works. Goldsmith's method 
of work was perforce not unlike Thack- 
eray's. In the case of the eighteenth 
century author as in that of the nineteenth 
century novelist, there was a finality in 
his style that could come only from men- 
tal distillation. There is not in the work 
of Anthony Troilope, despite the great 
heights to which he rose at times, any 
trace of the mastership of style that char- 
acterizes nearly every sentence from the 
pen of Goldsmith or of Thackeray. 

This is said here to explain Goldsmith's 
way of life. No doubt he could have sat 
at his table for fixed hours every day had 

147 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

he been supplied with routine work. His 
work, however, though much of it was 
not purely original, yet partook enough 
of the creative to demand the preliminary 
mental work only possible in hours that 
seem to Dr. Dryasdust to be wasted or to 
be spent in frivolity. 

Undoubtedly there are great faults even 
in Goldsmith's acknowledged master- 
pieces. The merest tyro who has grad- 
uated from a book of rhetoric, or who has 
made under a professor some comparative 
study of literary works, can point out 
blemishes in the "Vicar," in "The Trav- 
eller," or in "A Citizen of the World"; 
and in the same way no one can read the 
biographies of Goldsmith without coming 
upon many a justification for the poor 
opinion of him held by Boswell and others 
of his associates. 

But, as in the case of his literary work 
the general value and sterling qualities of 
the books completely overweigh minor 
defects, so in Goldsmith's personal char- 
acter, his good qualities, his self-respect, 

148 



He Enters Literary Society 

his independence, his unselfishness, his 
outspoken genuineness, account for his 
securing and retaining the friendship of the 
greatest men of his time — of Johnson, than 
whom none had a keener eye for pretence; 
of Reynolds, who might pick his friends 
wherever he chose; of Burke, whose claim 
to genius is never disputed; and of the 
lesser lights to whom the world of London 
lay open. 

That such men as these could come 
together and look upon their meeting as 
among their most precious hours, speaks 
most highly for them all. When we read 
concerning their friendship with one an- 
other, it is natural that chief stress should 
be laid upon the common interest in litera- 
ture that formed the tie between them, 
but when the life of each of the circle is 
considered apart, it is seen that each had 
his part to play in the general history of 
the time. 

One of the notable features of the day 
was the Club that seems to have sprung 
up upon the ruins of a similar organiza- 

149 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

tion to which ^ Johnsofi and some of his 
friends belonged. This body was formed, 
Austin Dobson tells us, at the suggestion 
of Reynolds, v/ho was therefore jocularly 
called its "Romulus." The members, 
besides Johnson and Goldsmith, included 
Burke, his father-in-law, Dr. Nugent, and 
the "scholars and fine gentlemen, Topham 
Beauclerc and Bennet Langton," together 
with others enough to make up the num- 
ber to twelve. The meetings were held 
every week at the Turk's Head Tavern. 

This Club was founded in 1764, and 
seems to have had no other object than 
to take supper and converse until a late 
hour. It proved to be of great good to 
Goldsmith, and he certainly enjoyed it. 
Professor Masson suggests that the cause 
of Goldsmith's taking rooms in Wine 
Office Court at about this time was his 
desire to be near the coffee-house where 
this Club met, either on Monday or Friday 
of each week. 



150 



CHAPTER X 

BEGINNING OF LITERARY SUCCESS 

The remark made by Johnson as to 
Goldsmith's hterary standing must have 
been based more upon critical judgment 
of his powers than upon any proof of them, 
for the opinion was given in 1763, before 
the publication of those productions upon 
which Goldsmith's fame chiefly rests. It 
is not strange, however, that Johnson 
should make the prophecy, when it is con- 
sidered that even in Goldsmith's minor 
productions the characteristics of his style 
are plainly evident. There is the same 
unforced flow of beautiful English, the 
same exactness in phrasing and the use 
of words, and, so far as the minor sub- 
jects permit it, there is proof of a complete 
grasp of them and ability to treat them with 
power and finality. 

151 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

It was after the time of Johnson's re- 
mark that Goldsmith was engaged in 
writing "The Traveller," for in 1764 there 
is recorded the visit of a friend to Gold- 
smith's rooms — it may have been Rey- 
nolds — at a time when the poet's occupa- 
tion showed that he was composing a part 
of the poem where occurred the lines : 

By sports like these are all our cares beguiled. 
The sports of children satisfy the child. 

This couplet, we are told, had come so 
recently from his pen that the ink was 
still wet, and Goldsmith had turned from 
his writing to teach a dog to sit up and beg. 
The coincidence between the lines and 
the writer's occupation brought forth a 
question, and Goldsmith acknowledged 
that it was while playing with the dog that 
the lines had occurred to him. 

About the end of 1764 appeared "The 
Traveller," a poem based, as is well 
known, upon the author's pedestrian tour 
in Europe, and dedicated as a token of 
affection to his older brother, always to 
him the dearest member of his family. To 

152 



Beginning of Literary Success 

the critics of the time it was an important 
matter that the poem had a distinct didac- 
tic purpose, and endeavored "to show 
that there may be equal happiness in other 
States, though differently governed from 
our own," but to our mind this moral 
purpose is of but the slightest importance. 
The imagery of the poem and its exquisite 
phrasing, especially where Goldsmith's 
language retained its native simplicity 
and made no attempt to rise into the con- 
ventionally poetic, are its claims to fame. 
For the metre and moralizing strain of 
the lines, Goldsmith seems somewhat 
indebted to the example of Johnson and 
Addison, but the greatest merits are en- 
tirely his own. 

Austin Dobson, with an ease not unlike 
Goldsmith's own, declares: "If Gold- 
smith's precepts leave us languid, his 
charming topography and his graceful 
memories, his tender retrospect and his 
genial sympathy with humanity, still invite 
and detain us. Most of us know the old 
couplets, but what has time taken from us 
of their ancient charm ?" 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

The poem was published in the usual 
showy and inconvenient form, a quarto, 
at eighteen pence, and brought the author 
at least twenty-one pounds, and possibly 
another payment of the same amount. 

Professor Masson ascribes the success 
of this poem to its appearing at a time 
when there was a lull in poetic produc- 
tion. He says, "Young was dead. Gray 
was a recluse, and indolent," Johnson was 
writing little in metrical form, while the 
inferior poets had few merits to recom- 
mend them. Goldsmith's verse was "a 
return to simplicity and truth of feeling," 
and was especially welcome at a time 
when the poems of Churchill were in suf- 
ficient vogue to have tired the public of 
their bitterness. 

There was sufficient distinction in Gold- 
smith's work to bring it into immediate 
prominence with the public, and to justify 
the opinion held of him by his more dis- 
criminating friends. An eminently femi- 
nine comment was that of Reynolds' sis- 
ter, who declared, when she had heard 

154 



Beginning of Literary Success 

''The Traveller" read aloud by Johnson, 
*'I shall never more think Mr. Goldsmith 
ugly." 

Even before the publication of "The 
Traveller," Goldsmith had been at v^ork 
upon his poem, "Edwin and Angelina," 
the ballad afterward included in "The 
Vicar of Wakefield" under the title, "The 
Hermit." This was an attempt to imi- 
tate the simplicity of the ancient ballads 
then being brought together by Bishop 
Percy. It is strange to read that in Gold- 
smith's opinion this poem could hardly 
be improved, his expression being, "It 
cannot be amended." It had received 
his most careful touches, being revised 
unweariedly. To modern readers, not 
only does "The Hermit" lack any claim 
to greatness, but in certain stanzas 
seems to have taken the downward step 
from the heroic to the ridiculous. 

In the following year, probably as a 
result of the sale of several editions of 
"The Traveller," appeared a book of 
Goldsmith's essays collected from periodi- 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

cals and republished by the author with 
the excuse that they were being pirated 
for various compilations. He says, amus- 
ingly, " I have seen some of my labors six- 
teen times reprinted and claimed by dif- 
ferent parents as their own." 

The printing of "Edwin and Angelina*' 
was in 1765, and in that same year Gold- 
smith made his last attempt to live by his 
profession. The motive seems to have 
been to secure a steady income, and by 
the advice of his friends he spent sufficient 
money to array himself richly, to set up a 
man servant, and to make a fair bid for 
social and professional recognition. But, 
as was inevitable, the attempt was a com- 
plete failure, and Goldsmith went back 
to his bottles of ink. 

In these years of Goldsmith's first lite- 
rary success, beginning with the publica- 
tion of "A Citizen of the World" in 1762, 
and extending to the appearance of "The 
Vicar of Wakefield," four years later, there 
was a multiplicity of events that must have 
busied the minds of all educated residents 

156 



Beginning of Literary Success 

of London. In the literary world three 
milestones are the publication of Rous- 
seau's '' Contrat Social,'* of Macpherson's 
striking *' Poems of Ossian/' and the 
establishment of "The North Briton'*' by 
John Wilkes, the first being a most power- 
ful agency in bringing about the French 
Revolution, thirty years later, the second 
marking the growth of the taste for folk- 
lore and poetry, the third an evidence of 
the changed relation of sovereign and sub- 
ject. A fourth event was the publication 
of Kames's "Elements of Criticism," a 
volume destined to a long life of useful- 
ness and an extended influence, though 
considered a work of little authority. 

Among the historical events of 1762 
was the war with Spain, the conquest of 
Cuba by the English, and the capture of 
Havana and of Manila. In Russia, Cathe- 
rine II. came to the throne; in England, 
George IV. died. A local event of impor- 
tance that particularly interested Dr. John- 
son, was written about by Goldsmith, 
and still forms the subject for an occa- 

^57 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

sional article, was the agitation about the 
^'Cock Lane Ghost," an imposture to 
describe which would take too much space 
here, but one that was more than a nine 
days' wonder in London. 

In the year, 1763, occurred an event that 
may not have interested Hterary London, 
but one that was to affect many great 
interests in the future, was the invention 
of the "spinning-jenny," a step in that 
marvelous advance in manufacture which 
was soon to change the conditions of mer- 
cantile and industrial life. 

In America, 1763 was notable because 
of Pontiac's great conspiracy, with the 
unsuccessful siege of Detroit, and of the 
establishment of "Mason and Dixon's 
Line" dividing, virtually, the free from 
the slave states. The same year in which 
the "Literary Club" was founded was 
important for America as that in which 
taxes were first laid upon the colonists. 
It was notable also for the pitiful entry 
into London of the young genius, Chat- 
terton, whose first forgery was in 1764. 

158 



Beginning of Literary Success 

The rise of a certain kind of fiction dates 
back to the pubHcation at this time of 
Walpole's "Castle of Otranto," probably 
the first really popular story of the mys- 
terious and horrible, and one whose popu- 
larity is not strange when we remember 
how attractive it must have been to palates 
used to the namby-pamby and didactic 
moral apologues then considered the cor- 
rect thing in fiction for the masses. 

Other events of this year that can be 
merely referred to, are the death of 
Hogarth, the birth of Sir Sidney Smith, 
the beginning of the church of the Pantheon 
at Paris, and the first use of numbers to 
distinguish houses in London. 

The annds of American literature note 
two pamphlets by Franklin, relating to 
the political situation and to a recent 
Indian massacre, and one by Otis, ascer- 
taining and defending the rights of the 
British colonies. 

Probably the most important event of 
this year 1764, was the beginning of the 
improvements of the steam engine, by 

159 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

James Watt. He was born eight years 
later than Goldsmith, of a good family 
of old Covenanter stock, some members 
of which were noted for scientific ability. 
The boy James retained his originality 
because, unable to go regularly to school, 
he was forced to be mainly his own in- 
structor. His father lost money, and at 
eighteen. Watt went to London to learn 
the trade of mathematical instrument 
maker. Ill-health sent him home again, 
but he had learnt his business and set up 
for himself in Glasgow, eking out an 
income by mending fiddles and tinkering. 
It was in 1761 or 1762 that Watt began 
his general experiments upon the force of 
steam, but in 1764, having to repair a 
model of the Newcomen engine used in 
the University, he was led to attempt 
improvements upon it. 

Knowing by his former experiments 
the power of steam, Watt saw how waste- 
ful was the crude Newcomen engine, and 
soon reasoned that the cylinder was the 
point where economy was to be secured. 

160 



Beginning of Literary Success 

Early in 1765 he invented the separate 
condenser. This made it possible to keep 
the working cylinder hot and yet to pro- 
duce a partial vacuum in it for the return 
stroke of the piston. 

The next step in Watt's improvement 
v^as to use the force of steam on both sides 
of the piston, alternately, by means of the 
"D-valve." Thus not only did he remove 
the main difficulty in securing the full 
force of the steam pressure, but he doubled 
the v^orking power of steam engines by 
using steam to push the piston both ways. 
So great were these changes that it is only 
fair to consider him the true inventor of 
the steam engine, and therefore to these 
two years, 1476 and 1765, we must ascribe 
the real beginning of steam-power — the 
influence that has contributed most to the 
transforming of the material world of the 
eighteenth century to that of our own 
time. To the steam engine we must credit 
a transformation of life, by no means yet 
completed. 

In 1765 the literary world was most 
interested by the publication of Bishop 

i6i 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

Percy's "Reliques of Ancient Poetry," a 
book destined to exercise an enormous 
influence upon the schools of poetry, by 
placing before modern readers models of 
the experiments of their predecessors. 
In the same year appeared Johnson's edi- 
tion of Shakespeare. For this edition 
Johnson wrote an introduction, wherein, 
despite his occasional condescending criti- 
cisms, and his failures to understand cer- 
tain of Shakespeare's excellences, he did 
give the world reason to approach the 
great dramatist with due reverence. 

Johnson was too great a man not to feel 
that he was in the presence of a greater 
in reading Shakespeare. And though he 
did not hesitate to declare Shakespeare's 
failures to reach certain conventional stan- 
dards in which Johnson believed, he also 
recognized that these apparent blemishes 
were no more than spots on the sun. After 
Johnson's time, and possibly with this 
introduction, began the new attitude 
toward Shakespeare. Critics henceforth 
were to go to Shakespeare as learners, 

162 



Beginning of Literary Success 

and patronage and condescension were no 
longer justifiable. 

We must also note in this year the attain- 
ment by Clive of the governor-generalship 
of India, though there is no need to trace 
the steps that led from his first victories 
to his final ascendency. Together with 
the creation of this vast colonial empire 
in the East came the beginning of the 
breach that v^as to separate from Eng- 
land her American colonies. The passing 
of the Stamp Act, the impassioned oratory 
of Patrick Henry, the protests of Burke 
in Parliament, and the attempt to quarter 
troops upon the American colonists, were 
indications of the beginning of the end. 
America was being stung to protests, 
and had discovered the strength of public 
sentiment that was opposed to the action 
of the British ministry. 

The early days of 1766, with their 
repeal of the Stamp Act, revealed a cer- 
tain uneasiness in the English govern- 
ment. Though there were to be many 
years of attempted reconcilement and 

163 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

compromise, the events of these few years 
had created an irritation of feeling never 
afterwards to be removed, so long as 
the mother country retained the colonies. 

As "The Vicar of Wakefield" was pub- 
lished in 1766, the month of March, and 
may be considered as making a distinct 
epoch in the life of Goldsmith, we shall 
return with that event to the more direct 
account of the poet's life. 



164 



CHAPTER XI 



THE "vicar" and THE FIRST PLAY 



In order to fix upon the date of the 
composition of "The Vicar of Wakefield," 
there has been a minute study of the re- 
cords, not only of its pubHsher, Newbery, 
but of the printer, CoUins, and also of 
such memoranda as Goldsmith left. The 
result of the investigation has been to fix 
its composition only vaguely between the 
years 1762 and 1766, when it was pub- 
lished. 

There has been found an agreement 
conveying to the printer, Collins, a one- 
third interest in the book in consideration 
of the advancement of sixty pounds or 
guineas to the author upon the incom- 
plete manuscript. The word "pound" 
or "guinea" was used indiscriminately, 

165 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

without difference of meaning in those 
days. 

One of the evidences relied upon for 
determining the date, is the mention in 
the book itself of a periodical, "The Audi- 
tor," which is given in a long list whereby 
one of the characters is trying to show his 
wide acquaintance with the literature of 
the day. It is argued that the mention 
of this periodical is a proof that the writ- 
ing must have taken place about 1762, 
though it would seem that its mention 
proves nothing more than a writing subse- 
quent to that time, and is worthless as a 
means of fixing a close date. 

A matter more interesting to us is the 
fact that in this same chapter of the 
"Vicar," Chapter XIX, mention is made 
of there being some seventeen magazines 
current at the time. These, together with 
the minor ones that undoubtedly existed 
and were not counted, show that almost 
a century and a half ago there was no lack 
of ephemeral literature, though its preva- 
lence is commonly looked upon as char- 
acteristic of to-day. 

166 



The " Vicar ^ and the First Play 

Another slight evidence of the date of 
writing is found in Chapter IX, where 
mention is made of "Shakespeare and 
the musical glasses" as being topics of 
polite conversation. It may be worth 
while to explain that by musical glasses 
is meant the arrangement of tumblers into 
series which are tuned to give out musi- 
cal notes by pouring more or less water 
into them and then played by the friction 
of a wetted finger upon the lip of each. 
Just about this time there was a performer 
in London making quite a stir through 
this means of entertainment. 

More important than either of these 
references, which merely fix a date some- 
what closely, is the characteristic of the 
book which has been brought out so 
cleverly by Dobson in his "Life of Gold- 
smith." To one who analyzes the little 
novel it is very evident that much of it 
has been subjected to a process of pad- 
ding. The course of the story is inter- 
rupted by the introduction of matter that 
could just as well be cut out so far as the 

167 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

integrity of the book is concerned. Among 
such passages may be cited Goldsmith's 
ballad, known by the name of "The 
Hermit/' which, as has been said, was 
privately printed before its inclusion there. 

The theory set forth by Austin Dobson, 
though perhaps not invented by him, is 
that Goldsmith, having received a good 
round payment on account of this book, 
had set it aside uncompleted, and when 
called upon to deliver the finished manu- 
script had shovelled in such matter as 
would fill it out to the required length of 
two volumes. 

In the case of the *' Vicar," there can 
hardly be any doubt of the truth of Dob- 
son's theory that it was pieced out, but 
we must not forget that even down to the 
times of Dickens it was not uncommon for 
authors to insert in novels whatever epi- 
sodes or interludes they happened to have 
on hand. 

Two notable examples will occur to 
every reader, the cases of "Don Quixote" 
and the "Pickwick Papers." And we 

i68 



The ''Vicar' and the First Play 

must not forget, either, that at this time 
Sterne's "Tristram Shandy," the most 
rambHng of all books, proved a will- 
ingness in the public to allow an author 
the utmost freedom. Of much later date 
than Goldsmith's "Vicar" is the general 
acceptance of strict rules for the construc- 
tion of novels. There was still some- 
thing left of the divinity hedging about 
a king of the author's craft. While the 
publisher was undoubtedly at liberty to 
buy or to reject, he had not yet been ele- 
vated to the stool of the critic. If a man 
of Goldsmith's rank presented a manu- 
script having the outward appearance of 
a novel, a publisher like Newbery would 
hardly dissect the work in order to detect 
those parts that had been added to pad it. 

The explanation given by Dobson is 
based upon what is almost a certainty — 
the belief that Goldsmith had postponed 
the work until the publisher had insisted 
upon the completed manuscript being de- 
livered upon short notice. "The Trav- 
eller" had been published a year and a 

169 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

quarter before, and undoubtedly its suc- 
cess had caused the pubhsher to push 
Goldsmith to the completion of the novel. 

Hundreds of pages have been filled by 
various biographers in the attempt to get at 
the relative amounts of truth and fiction 
in the well-known anecdote describing 
the visit to Goldsmith by Johnson just 
before the publication of "The Vicar of 
Wakefield." In one form or another the 
anecdote describes the state of embar- 
rassment for money in which Johnson 
found the author, and that Goldsmith 
declared he had on hand a completed 
story upon which possibly some money 
might be raised. Johnson is said then 
to have taken the manuscript out for the 
purpose of finding a market for it, and to 
have come back with the sum of sixty 
pounds as the result of his kindly assis- 
tance. We have already briefly mentioned 
this incident. 

The reader will see at once that there 
are certain characteristics of this story 
that tend to throw discredit upon it, and 

170 



The " Vicar^^ and the First Play 

in the forefront of these must be put the 
fact that the book was sold to the publisher 
Newbery. Who can believe that Gold- 
smith had been drawing money from 
Newbery for several years upon a sort of 
running account and had never thought 
of offering to him the completed, or nearly 
completed, manuscript of "The Vicar of 
Wakefield" ? Does it not seem much 
more likely that there was a difficulty 
between Newbery and Goldsmith that 
was arranged by the agency of Johnson ? 
It would not be strange if the upshot of 
the negotiations was all that remained in 
Johnson's mind — the sale of the manu- 
script and the receipt of the money. 

Certainly there must have been a num- 
ber of occasions on which Goldsmith was 
in straits for money and was helped by 
Johnson or another friend. We know 
that neither "The Traveller" nor the 
"Vicar" brought him much ready money. 
The success of the former was mainly in 
the fame it gave him, and although the 
latter sold fairly weR the amounts ad- 

171 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

vanced to the author, whichever story of 
its sale be true, would prevent his receiv- 
ing any large amount for some time to 
come. Besides, we see that Goldsmith 
continued to do the hackwork upon which 
he had depended for a living for so many 
years. 

One occasion, upon which it is certain 
that he was indebted to Johnson for a 
well-meant attempt to put him in the way 
of earning a large sum of money, is in con- 
nection with his first play, "The Good- 
Natur'd Man." The English stage at 
the time was largely given over to the pro- 
duction of a light form of drama which had 
been imitated or imported from the French, 
and so far as the criterion of popular suc- 
cess went, the public seemed entirely satis- 
fied with that form of composition. The 
reader will not need to be told that Gold- 
smith, despite his weaknesses, had the 
essential strength of character that pre- 
vented his being a vane whirled hither 
and thither by the breath of popularity. 
His hackwork, it is true, was necessarily 

172 



The " Vicar'' and the First Play 

done to suit the public, as its wishes were 
interpreted by his pubHshers; but his 
poems, his essays, his novel, were strongly 
tinged with his own personality, and fol- 
lowed the direction of his own taste. And 
now, in spite of the trend of public opin- 
ion toward the so-called "genteel" comedy, 
Goldsmith's play was an attempt to revive 
or to restore to public favor the old English 
comedy of bright humor and sharply- 
delineated character. Johnson's good 
offices consisted in his attempt to bring 
the play to the notice of Garrick, who 
would have been long in giving ear to one 
so little skilled in the ways of securing 
favors as Dr. Goldsmith. 

Although Garrick did not quite reign 
alone in the dramatic world, yet there 
was really no serious dispute of his pre- 
eminence. Not only was he very great 
as an actor and successful as a manager, 
but, as we know from Goldsmith's poem 
written several years later, he was a man 
who possessed what has since been known 
as "personal magnetism," quick appre- 

173 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

henslon, with the power of throwing him- 
self, for the moment at least, strongly into 
sympathy with the mood of his friends. 
Rich in talents and of a most attractive 
personality, Garrick was courted and fa- 
vored by all his associates. That there 
was something genuinely lovable about 
the man we may be sure by the constant 
employment of the nickname "Davy," 
which hardly could have been given to 
one who was insincere or repellent toward 
his associates. 

It is hard enpugh to know well the 
characters of those with whom we have 
lived in intimacy for years; infinitely 
harder to gather from fragmentary records 
and secondary testimony the true charac- 
ters of men and women of the past; but 
it does not seem hard to understand the 
lack of sympathy between Goldsmith and 
Garrick. Goldsmith certainly was not 
brilliant in conversation; he was too gen- 
uine to sue for favors, too conscious of 
his own merit to become a satellite like 
Boswell. 

174 



The "Vicar'' and the First Play 

As he gained consideration for his work, 
he took the position that was rightfully 
his in the circle made up of Johnson, 
Reynolds, Garrick, and their friends. But 
at this time he had not won a recognition 
great enough to overbalance his unat- 
tractive appearance, his oddity, his tact- 
less talk, and his blunt truth-telling. 

Whatever may be the true reason, we 
know the fact that Garrick was not eager 
to undertake the play, and after some 
unsatisfactory negotiations. Goldsmith 
turned to Colman, of the Covent Garden 
Theatre. And here, in 1768, the play 
was produced. 

In the interim Goldsmith was at work 
upon a piece of compilation undoubtedly 
suggested by the success of his "English 
History" that was still circulating partly 
upon the assumption of its noble author- 
ship. This new compilation was called 
"A Compendium of Roman History," 
and was undertaken for the publisher 
Davies, who seems to have been princi- 
pally noted as the husband of "Pretty 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

Mrs. Davies," whose beauty was cele- 
brated by more than one admirer. 

In order to make more complete the 
annals of these years, we must mention 
among Goldsmith's ground-out tasks a 
"History of Philosophy," a collection of 
"Poetry for Ladies," an English gram- 
mar, and a compilation of poems entitled 
"Beauties of English Poesy," wherein, 
it has been remarked by biographers, he 
included his poem of "Edwin and Ange- 
lina," and preceded the volume with the 
statement that none of the beautiful poems 
contained in it but would insure its author's 
reputation! 

In G. L. Craik's "Literature and Learn- 
ing in England" there is a very just sum- 
mary of the merits that have kept alive 
"The Vicar of Wakefield," and it is well 
to conclude this subject with a quotation 
from the criticism to remind us that Gold- 
smith's reputation depends, after all, upon 
the average excellence of his work. Even 
his hackwork had the charm of style, but 
his immortality comes from the affectionate 
regard his best works have won for him. 

176 



^he " Vicar and the First Play 

Craik, after citing a number of the 
shortcomings of the novel and its artificial 
tone, proceeds thus with his estimate: 
"Yet there is that in the book which 
makes all this comparatively of little con- 
sequence — the inspiration and vital power 
of original genius, the charm of true feel- 
ing, some portions of the music of the 
great hymn of nature made audible to all 
hearts. Notwithstanding all its imper- 
fections, the story not only amuses us 
while we read, but takes root in the memory 
and affections as much, almost, as any 
story that was ever written." 

The critic then points out the charm 
of Dr. Primrose's character, the good 
qualities of Mrs. Primrose, and the human 
kindliness in which the family is pre- 
sented. "These," he writes, "are the 
parts of the book that are remembered," 
and points out that, after all, it is the story, 
the mere plot, that is least important in a 
great work of fiction. 

This estimate of the charm of the novel 
goes far to give us a key to the power of 

177 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

Goldsmith's other work — ^the same sym- 
pathetic kindliness that presents without 
bitterness or cynicism the human soul 
that lies in each of his characters. 

As for seeking light upon the charac- 
teristics of his times, we shall find only a 
little in the pages of the "Vicar." The 
story has to do so much more with the 
life-drama of its characters than with 
other outward circumstances, that it is 
not of great importance as a document 
preserving manners and customs. 

From Chapter II we may gather some- 
thing of the ordinary way of spending a 
day in a family whose circumstances 
were easy. In Chapter IV there is a 
sketch not only of the home life, but also 
of the house and the daily customs of the 
inmates. In Chapter XX, besides the 
sketch of the life of an usher in a small 
school, we have that of an adventurer 
living upon his wits, a life that is supposed 
to reflect much of Goldsmith's own hard- 
ships. And when the "Vicar" falls into 
misfortune, his imprisonment gives us 

178 



TJie " Vicar'^ and the First Play 

some idea of the suflFerings of those whose 
misfortunes had thrown them into the 
debtors' prisons. 

Minor points that help us to acquain- 
tance with small social customs are found 
in the notes to the novel. Thus we have 
a day's journey on horseback reckoned at 
about forty miles, and we are told of the 
customs on Christmas, Valentine's Day, 
Shrovetide, and so on; are made ac- 
quainted with various ballads and with 
popular characters; with the species of 
fancy work favored by women; have ref- 
erences to the books most in vogue, and 
we learn that it was not uncommon for 
ladies of family to swear, gamble, and take 
snuff. But most such minor customs go 
and come, and should not be considered as 
characteristic of a half-century. 



179 



CHAPTER XII 



EVENTS CONTEMPORARY WITH THE " VICAR" 



Goldsmith's novel was published in 
1766, in the same year that Lessing's 
"Laocoon" appeared, a book that created 
a new era in esthetic culture and litera- 
ture. It was the attempt of a most clear- 
sighted critic to lay down the principles 
underlying the creation of great works of 
art, and especially to show the difference 
between subjects as treated by poets and 
by artists. The general effect of the book 
is all that can be here hinted at. It may 
be regarded as the first step toward put- 
ting, the science of esthetics on a well- 
understood and logical basis — a matter 
of the utmost importance in securing just 
criticism and thereby making it certain 
that good work should be encouraged and 
bad work condemned. The principle he 

180 



Events Contemporary with the *' Ftcar" 

points out has been well stated in these 
words: "Each art is subject to definite 
conditions and can accomplish great re- 
sults only by limiting itself to its special 
function." 

It might be said that it was characteris- 
tic of this whole age to analyze and sift 
matters down to their final principles. 
We may observe this tendency at work 
everywhere. In economics it was shown 
in the attempts of statesmen to look be- 
yond mere local conditions for the reason 
of the riots that were brought about pri- 
marily because of the high price of bread- 
stuffs. 

In American affairs this disposition to 
look directly to first principles rather than 
to be misled by the surface of legal enact- 
ments had a most powerful influence upon 
the future of the Colonies, and, in fact, 
brought about the Revolution. There was 
on the part of the English ministry a dis- 
position to be as lenient toward the Colon- 
ists as was possible, so long as they could 
establish the principle of compelling the 

i8i 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

Colonies to pay a part of the expenses' 
made necessary by their administration. 

The English ministers of the time were 
dependent to a great extent upon the per- 
sonality of a few great leaders. The ora- 
tory of Pitt and of Burke seemed to possess 
a greater influence in government affairs 
than any arguments based upon statisti- 
cal evidence. It was a time of states- 
men rather than of blue books, and it hap- 
pened that the dispute between England 
and her Colonies became the test ques- 
tion by which the throne and its adherents 
tried men's loyalty. 

When Pitt became "Lord Chatham," 
probably because of his inability longer 
to sustain the fierce strife of the lower 
House, the ministry that had depended 
upon him for support gradually yielded 
before the attacks of his enemies, and giv- 
ing up one by one its claims to tax the 
Colonies upon specific articles of com- 
merce, made its last stand in the very bill 
that repealed the Stamp Act. While re- 
scinding its provisions, the English gov- 

182 



Events Contemporary with the " Vicar 



99 



ernment expressly declared the authority 
to tax; but, as has been said, the Ameri- 
cans had long since discovered their power 
and had come to the resolution that nothing 
less than complete surrender of the prin- 
ciple of "taxation without representation*' 
would satisfy them. 

This is the explanation of the little- 
understood fact that the Revolution traced 
its origin to certain trivial imposts that 
would seem hardly worth an indignation 
meeting. Both the British government 
and the Colonial assemblies understood 
that the whole question of independence 
was involved in the assertion or denial 
of the right to tax arbitrarily. The oppres- 
sion of the Colonies was bitterly opposed 
by the Liberal party in the English Parlia- 
ment, and in the Colonies themselves could 
be heard denunciations hardly more bitter 
than those pronounced in the House of 
Commons. 

It is an instructive contrast to imagine 
the two college-mates, Burke and Gold- 
smith, in this year, 1766; one writing 

183 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

literature imbued with the strangely idyllic 
spirit of "Goody Two Shoes," and the 
other bending the aflFairs of the British 
Empire to the philosophic lines laid down 
in his own mind. If we are tempted to 
consider Goldsmith's work trivial, we 
must reflect that though the domains in 
which these two men worked differ widely, 
each exerted an influence that is yet alive; 
and it may be questioned whether the power 
of Goldsmith in moulding the human 
mind will not eventually prove to have 
influenced the world more greatly than 
Burke's philosophy influenced the course 
of political events. It is too often for- 
gotten that the poet in prose or verse, the 
artist with brush or chisel, or the man 
who simply makes his own life a work of 
the highest art — the art of conduct — may 
influence even practical life more deeply 
and more widely than the man who seems 
to sway the political destinies of a nation, 
or who leads its armies to battle. 

In Green's History there is a rapid 
summary of the more important events 

184 



Events Contemporary with the '' Ftcar^' 

of this time, showing that the counsellors 
of England were devising means for set- 
tling that insoluble problem, the govern- 
ment of Ireland, for subjecting directly 
to the government the great corporation, 
"John Company," which bade fair to 
become virtual sovereign of India, and for 
keeping the balance true by opposing an 
alliance with Prussia and Russia, and the 
growing influence of the Bourbons in 
Europe. These movements were in dif- 
ferent stages of progress, and some of 
them were not completed for many years. 
The year 1767 was marked in the career 
of Goldsmith by an attempt on the part 
of the government to secure his pen in its 
service. The attempt was made by a 
noted go-between called Parson Scott. 
It is amusing to read the emissary's ac- 
count of his interview. He relates with 
contempt how the poor-spirited writer 
neglected the chance to fill his purse by 
the easy method of selling his indepen- 
dence, and relates with scorn that Gold- 
smith chose to rely upon his ill-paid hack- 

185 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

work rather than to shine with the iri- 
descence of corruption. The incident ends 
with the words "and so I left him in his 
garret" — a position whose elevation was 
of another kind than Parson Scott sus- 
pected. 

Toward the end of this year one of the 
main sources of income for Goldsmith 
was removed by the death of John New- 
bery, always to be remembered as the first 
to publish little books for children. His 
immortality, such as it is, has been earned 
by his connection with the poor author 
to whom no doubt he thought he had been 
a most kindly and condescending patron. 
Possibly Newbery is entitled to some credit 
as part author of the books for children 
that have been credited to Goldsmith and 
others. But the question can never be 
settled, for the time had not yet arrived 
wh^n authorship of literature for children 
was considered worth claiming. 

Indeed, to our own less formal time 
our forefathers of the middle of the eigh- 
teenth century, while no doubt to be re- 

l86 



Events Contemporary with the " Vicar*' 

spected for dignity, seem to have taken 
themselves too seriously: Their formali- 
ties were respectable, but much that they 
disregarded or considered trivial seems 
to us of far greater significance than their 
cherished forms and ceremonies. Much 
of their ponderous literature has been 
cheerfully foregone by us, v^hile we are 
eager to retain what seemed to them trifles 
light as air. 

It was not that there lacked apprecia- 
tion for books of a purely literary tone. 
The continued success of "Tristram 
Shandy," the last volume of which was 
published in this year, proved that style 
alone was enough to win readers for a book 
that was, so far as its purpose went, a 
"much ado about nothing." 

Very significant of this period was the 
extension of English influence, by means 
of the discoveries of her navigators. In 
1766 Captain Byron had returned from 
an exploring voyage into the South Seas, 
and within a few years thereafter Cap- 
tain Wallis had made explorations in the 

187 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

Pacific that led Cook to a complete ran- 
sacking of vast regions most vaguely 
known. The v^ork known as "Cook's 
Voyages" deserves immortality for two 
reasons; first, as a record of his epoch- 
making voyages and his adventurous life, 
the typical life of an English navigator, 
and, secondly, as a work of the greatest 
literary charm because of the wonderland 
it opened to the imagination and its power- 
ful influence upon the English zeal for 
exploring strange lands. Green says that 
this book familiarized England "more 
and more with a sense of possession, with 
the notion that this strange land of wonders 
was their own." It was "Cook's Voy- 
ages" that began the world empire we 
have learned to associate with the British 
flag. 

An event that probably occupied more 
of Goldsmith's attention than the reports 
of these explorers' voyages was the open-- 
ing of the noted Bagnigge Wells, in Lon- 
don, a sort of gathering place for pleasure- 
seekers of the city, that is compared to the 

i88 



Events Contemporary with the " Ficar^* 

more celebrated Vauxhall Gardens. An 
excuse for its vogue was found in the exis- 
tence of two mineral springs; and a large 
garden such as delighted the people of 
this time was laid out with walks, a fish- 
ing-pond, and certain artificial rusticities 
for the delight of the young people of the 
metropolis. It was the equivalent of 
the modern park, and the difference be- 
tween the two pleasure-grounds is very 
significant of the change in public taste. 
To-day, the taste of the larger part of the 
public, if popularity be an indication, is 
for "raree shows'' such as we know by the 
name "vaudeville." Those who care for 
the beauties of nature delight in her un- 
adorried, and would find the imitation ru- 
ralities of the eighteenth century simply 
absurd. This change in the taste of the 
people can be traced progressively in the 
lighter literature from that time to this, 
and it indicates a growing appreciation 
for what are the real beauties of nature. 

This was a period of great advance in 
textile manufacture. The so-called "spin- 

189 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

nmg-jenny," first invented in 1764, and 
quickly developed, had become an epoch- 
making improvement. It consisted in an 
apparatus by v^hich the operation of 
drawing out the carded wool and spin- 
ning it into thread was multiplied many 
times. Where hand spinning had pro- 
duced a single thread, the jenny pro- 
duced eight from the beginning, and with 
the development of the principle the num- 
ber of threads was increased in even 
greater ratio. 

Following Hargreaves' inventions came 
those of Arkwright and Crompton, which 
applied to textile production methods that 
were to result in the modern factory-sys- 
tem of manufacture. From these begin- 
nings the application of machinery to 
cloth-making has steadily increased to 
our own time, involving social changes whose 
importance we are just beginning to under- 
stand. 

The next year, 1768, was chiefly noted 
in the American struggle for a new phase 
of the strife between the ministry and the 

190 



Events Contemporary with the *' Ficar'* 

Colonies. Having postponed the attempt 
to establish direct taxation, Parliament 
passed an act meant to establish the same 
principle in a most specious form: they 
quartered troops upon the Colonists and 
charged the support of these soldiers upon 
their unwilling hosts. But the leaders of 
the patriots in New York and Boston were 
not to be deceived into permitting the gov- 
ernment to establish the hated principle 
in this way. Vigorous measures were 
taken for resistance. Petitions were pre- 
pared, support of the soldiers was refused, 
pamphlets were published, meetings held, 
and in every way resistance to the domi- 
nation of the ministry was fomented by 
the few American leaders who were begin- 
ning to look forward to separation from 
the mother country. 

Probably these matters affected Gold- 
smith no more nearly than the questions 
of Philippine administration affects authors 
of our own day who consider themselves 
engaged in literary pursuits rather than 
in politics. 

191 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

A matter that must have meant a great 
deal to one whose eagerness for pubHc 
distinction and interest in the rise of his 
friends was so great as Goldsmith's, is 
the elevation of Reynolds to the presidency 
of the Royal Academy, founded this year. 
Reynolds' life was one of unbroken suc- 
cess. He soon reached, and always after- 
wards retained, supremacy. 

In a summary of his career, by E. G. 
Johnson, it is declared that the growth of 
his reputation is best traced in the growing 
prices he charged for portraits. Begin- 
ning at five guineas, he had more than 
doubled the price in 1755; in 1760, he 
charged twenty-five guineas, and in his 
later years, fifty — a price that to our days 
seems absurdly small for the leading por- 
trait painter of the age, even though his 
rapidity of production enabled him to 
finish a portrait in four hours. He painted 
nearly every one of note of his time, his 
studio being thronged "with women who 
wished to be transmitted as angels, and 
men who wished to appear as heroes and 

192 



Events Contemporary with the *' Vicar 



» 



philosophers" — a sentence taken origi- 
nally from Northcote. 

When called by acclamation to the 
presidency of the Royal Academy, he be- 
came "Sir Joshua'* by favor of George 
III.; and we have no doubt that Gold- 
smith, v^hatever he may have done, would 
have been glad to array himself in some- 
thing more brilliant than purple and fine 
linen, when his great friend acquired the 
handle to his name. We know from the 
account of the author's appearance during 
the first performance of "TheGood-Natur'd 
Man," that he indulged at the beginning 
of 1768 in a suit of "Tyrian bloom, satin 
green and garter-blue silk breeches." 

This first performance of his play had 
taken place in January, after some post- 
ponement due to a desire on the part of 
the manager, Colman, not to interfere with 
a new play brought out by Garrick. The 
success of Goldsmith's play was not com- 
plete. While certain characters pleased, 
at least one scene had to be cut out; but 
it was not for a number of years that the 

193 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

story of Goldsmith's disappointment came 
to light. He went out to a Club supper, 
at the conclusion of his play, was jolly and 
sociable, even sung his favorite song 
about "the old woman tossed in a blanket 
seventeen times as high as the moon," 
though he afterwards confessed to John- 
son that he was "suffering horrid tortures 
all the time." 

The play of "The Good-Natur'd Man" 
was continued for ten nights and brought 
Goldsmith no small sum, perhaps an 
equivalent to five thousand dollars, when 
we include the amount derived from its 
book-form sales. 



I 



194 



CHAPTER XIII 

AMONG PROSPEROUS FOLK 

It was characteristic of Goldsmith that 
as soon as he had a glimpse of prosperity 
his "knack of hoping" made him discount 
the large earnings he expected. When 
"The Good-Natur'd Man" brought him 
so large a sum, he decided at once to take 
better lodgings, and became an inmate of 
the Temple. In this building he occu- 
pied several different apartments, notably 
the three rooms known as No. 2 Brick 
Court, altogether very pleasant quarters. 

Goldsmith not only chose a better local- 
ity, but borrowing money from the book- 
sellers and from a "Templar" who was 
his neighbor, Mr. Edmond Boltt, a bar- 
rister and legal author, he fitted up his 
rooms even luxuriously for the time. 
Austin Dob son gives a brief list of the 

195 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

poet's extravagances, but Goldsmith's im- 
prudence seems to have gone no further 
than decent carpets and curtains, a picture 
or two, a large mirror, and certain small 
tables for cards or tea. It doesn't seem 
necessary to condemn these very excusable 
expenditures. Doubtless Goldsmith, in fit- 
ting up his chamibers, and in returning 
therein some of the hospitalities he had 
received, believed he was doing no more 
than decency demanded. 

Those living in the Temple at this time 
happened to record a number of anecdotes 
of Dr. Goldsmith and his residence among 
them, and since his biography is largely 
based upon such accidental references, we 
know but little more of his later days than 
of those wherein his friends were less 
literary. Still, there is no great impor- 
tance to be attached to the anecdotes of 
this time. They mainly have to do with 
the surface eccentricities, with the odd 
sayings, and passing light jokes that do 
so much to fill the pages of biographers, 
while contributing so little to our knowl- 

196 



Among Prosperous Folk 

edge of the real men about whom they are 
preserved. We know, and are glad to 
know, that Goldsmith was able to show 
hospitality to his friends, and like to think 
of the once starving tutor as presiding at 
the head of a well-filled board around 
which were gathered his old friends and 
many new ones. 

Besides Boswell, Johnson, Burke, Rey- 
nolds, Percy, and Garrick, came Sir Philip 
Francis, the reputed author of those bitter 
"Letters of Junius" which were laying 
bare the weaknesses and follies of the gov- 
ernment, and Sir William Blackstone, 
whose "Commentaries" are still the un- 
moved basis of legal education. 

As to the "Letters of Junius," the 
sixty-nine that appeared began in January, 
1769, and came out during the following 
three years. The letters were notable 
for their polished style and their keen 
intelligence, but excited fear while they 
awakened universal interest because of the 
repeated proofs that the writer was thor- 
oughly informed upon matters that were 

197 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

believed to be secrets of the government and 
was not too scrupulous to use this infor- 
mation however it had been acquired. 

It can easily be understood that when 
the King's ministers were never certain 
that a forthcoming letter of "Junius' 
would not expose the inmost secrets of 
their policy, and when the enemies of the 
administration were finding their keenest 
weapons in these audacious letters, there 
would be the deepest interest and curiosity 
regarding the possible author. Though 
there have been attempts to credit the 
authorship to other writers, it may be 
regarded as certain that they were from 
the hand of Sir Philip Francis. Francis's 
career as clerk in the Secretary of State's 
office, amanuensis to Pitt, clerk to the 
War Office, and one familiar with govern- 
mental questions in India and in Parlia- 
ment, seems to fit him to bear the odium 
or to claim the fame of the celebrated epis- 
tles. The excellence of their literary 
quality is such that they have often been 
attributed to Edmund Burke himself. 

198 



Among Prosperous Folk 

But Goldsmith's life in London had its 
vacation times in which with one party of 
friends or another he wandered off for 
what he called "shoemaker's holidays," 
and in them explored the nearer village 
suburbs, just as Scott used to ride off for 
his country raids. These little outings 
were, very sensibly, made economical, the 
expense to each of the party seldom exceed- 
ing a few shillings. Goldsmith was usu- 
ally the leader of the party, and delighted 
to have his guests, four or five of his friends, 
come to his rooms ready for an early 
start; and then, setting out upon foot, the 
party would make their goal some inn 
where they could obtain a cheap dinner 
that was made memorable by the conver- 
sation of the literary men, the "Templars" 
and the retired merchants who were ad- 
mitted to the party. 

One of Goldsmith's biographers, in 
speaking of his improved lodgings says, 
*'The old quarters, looked at by the light 
of his good fortune, had grown too narrow 
for his importance." In the absence of 

199 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

any specific proof this implication of fool- 
ish conceit seems gratuitous. Though we 
have anecdotes showing Goldsmith in a 
rather absurd light, yet these stories come 
from his intimate companions, from the 
lips of those in whose company, if at all, 
any man not a pedantic prig would con- 
sider himself free to unbend. It should 
not be forgotten that one noted for his 
literary power, especially for the writing 
of essays upon learning and upon the 
social condition of England, would be 
narrowly watched for those weaknesses 
that make us all akin. 

The same disposition that delights to 
tell of Goldsmith's "bloom-colored coat," 
of his fits of spleen or jealousy, of his 
vanity, has in our own day reveled in the 
inharmonious state of Carlyle's house- 
hold, the strange pranks indulged in by 
Bulwer and by Dickens, and has filled many 
a column with foolish stories about lite- 
rati, great or small. There is hardly one 
of the group Goldsmith gathered about 
his table in the Temple, concerning whom 

200 



Among Prosperous Folk 

at least as large a sheaf of anecdotes could 
not be collected showing him in a light no 
less absurd or laughable than that which 
is so often turned upon the foibles of the 
little Irish doctor. 

We do not have as a foil to these lighter 
sketches any description of the dark days 
such as must have come to Oliver in May of 
this year, when he lost the dear brother 
Henry to whom he had dedicated "The 
Traveller," and whom he had sincerely loved 
throughout his life. There were very 
few ties of affection that might have kept 
Goldsmith from the harmless, if less ele- 
vated, enjoyment he found in his banquets 
and his outings with the friends he had 
won among the best citizens of London. 
Certainly there was no reason why one 
whose days were spent in such work as 
the "Animated Nature," for which he 
made an agreement in the following year, 
and in the "Roman History," that was 
little but pure hackwork, to make us 
grudge the brighter hours he found in the 
intercourse which his own worth had 

201 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

made possible with the brightest men of 
his time. 

The year 1769, that saw the first of the 
** Junius" letters, and a great Shakespeare 
Jubilee at Stratford, is still remembered 
by those who assign reputations to the 
years as pre-eminently the "year of great 
babies." Not only did it bring forth him 
who was perhaps the greatest of all mere 
men, Napoleon Bonaparte, whose career 
is the fairy tale of history, but also his 
great opponent, Wellington, the great mar- 
shals Soult and Ney, that giant of science, 
Alexander von Humboldt, the man of 
letters, Chateaubriand, Sir Thomas Law- 
rence, the artist, John Quincy Adams, 
Lord Castlereagh, Bishop of Middlesex, 
Cuvier, Brunei, the engineer, and the 
actor, Tallien, to name only those who 
have very great fame. Perhaps it would 
not be wrong to put among the "great 
babies" of the year the patents issued to 
Watt for his steam-engine, and to Ark- 
wright for his spinning-frame, ancestors 
whose progeny is already world-wide. 

20Z 



Among Prosperous Folk 

In England the political world was ab- 
sorbed in watching the fierce combat 
between the conservative members of Par- 
liament and Wilkes, the champion of the 
people. Returned again and again as 
member for Middlesex, Wilkes was un- 
seated as often and, by a most high- 
handed and outrageous proceeding, his 
seat in Parliament was given to his defeated 
opponent. There could, of course, be 
but one end to the struggle where the essen- 
tial power, as in England, lay in the hands 
of the people. Wilkes stood for the right, 
though many of his writings deserved the 
severest reprehension. 

These were the most important events 
for the year, and the ones in which Gold- 
smith was most likely to have a keen 
interest, though from other points of view 
the annals of the time might present occur- 
rences fully as worthy of notice. Perhaps 
we should add at least the completion by 
the historian, Robertson, of his "History 
of Charles V.", for which he is said to have 
received forty-five hundred pounds, and 
203 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

should make record of the founding of the 
American college of Dartmouth. 

About this time or a little later, Gold- 
smith was at work upon the poem which 
is probably his best literary work, "The 
Deserted Village." It was dedicated to 
Sir Joshua Reynolds, in an affectionate 
letter containing a touching allusion to 
his brother Henry, who had so recently 
died. The theme, or at least the writing, 
may well have been suggested by the mem- 
ories of his childhood awakened by the loss 
of his brother. 

When engaged upon the composition of 
"The Deserted Village," it is said that it 
was the Doctor's custom to write down in 
sequence a general sketch of the ideas to 
be presented in the completed lines, and 
then to throw these rougher notes into a 
first draft of verse which, when copied, 
leaving plenty of space and margin, was 
the raw material upon which, by succes- 
sive revisions, alterations, and additions, 
he built up the finished verses. 

We gain some idea of his rate of speed 
from the fact that a visitor was shown, one 

204 



Among Prosperous Folk 

day, as a result of the second morning's 

work on the poem, the ten lines beginning: 

Dear lovely bowers of innocence and ease. 

Austin Dobson, from the fact that " Dear 
lovely bowers'' is the beginning of the fifth 
line, draws the amusing conclusion that 
the first day's work upon the poem could 
have consisted of no more than the first 
four lines — though, really, the conclusion 
amounts to little, since the poet might 
easily have spent a week in choosing the 
exact episodes with which to begin a poem 
of this length and importance. This Dob- 
son admits when he says that the pro- 
cesses of poetry are "not to be so exactly 
meted." 

In finishing the account of the year 1769 
we must, instead of quoting the time- 
honored anecdote of the banquet in Bond 
Street, representing Goldsmith strutting 
about and displaying with pride the work of 
his tailor, refer the reader to Boswell's 
** Johnson," where it is told at length. We 
shall not attempt to put the emphasis where 
It has always been placed in recounting 

205 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

the anecdote, but will beg rather to call 
the reader's attention to the remark of 
Garrick about Goldsmith's appearance: 
"Nay, you will always look like a gen- 
tleman, but I am talking of being well or 
ill dressed." 

Considering that this criticism came 
from the mouth of an actor and manager, 
the one of all others best fitted to pro- 
nounce finally upon the question of mere 
outward appearance, may it not be allowed 
authority enough to outweigh the inference 
that Goldsmith was an extravagant popin- 
jay whose appearance was absurd ? If 
he always "looked like a gentleman," we 
need not trouble ourselves greatly over the 
question of his conformity to fashion or 
custom. 

From the same authority that records 
this banquet in Bond Street, we learn that 
by the kindly thought of Reynolds, John- 
son and Goldsmith received honorary 
appointments in the Royal Academy. It 
was in regard to this appointment as " Pro- 
fessor of Ancient History to the Royal 

206 



Among Prosperous Folk 

Academy of Painting" that Goldsmith 
wrote to his brother Maurice, "Honors 
to one in my position are something Hke 
ruffles to one that wants a shirt." Here, 
again, we must not interpret too literally 
this playful humor. Goldsmith had put 
far away from him the days of poverty, and 
no doubt meant merely to point out the 
absurdity of such rewards to men of let- 
ters, when men of affairs so easily found 
richly-endowed offices that were even 
greater sinecures. 

If we were to seek a picture of destitu- 
tion that would contrast with the pros- 
perity of Goldsmith and his friends, we 
might find it this very year in the last 
months of Thomas Chatterton, who had 
lived in London in the spring and early 
summer of 1770, coming to town with a 
few pounds in his pocket that had been 
raised by his friends — apparently to rid 
themselves of him — since he had been dis- 
charged by his country employer because 
of a " Last Will and Testament of Thomas 
Chatterton" written by the young genius 

207 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

to confirm the suspicion that he was about 
to commit suicide. Taking at first a lodg- 
ing with a relative in Shoreditch, Chatter- 
ton went the rounds of the few printers 
and publishers to whom he had brought 
letters. He did his best to live upon the 
few pennies he could gain by writing politi- 
cal articles and songs. He even pre- 
tended to be prospering, and bought 
trifling presents for his mother and sister 
out of the money he needed for food. As 
his money gave out he removed from his 
relative's house to No. 4 Brooke Street, 
Holborn, and there gradually fell into abso- 
lute destitution. His landlady, Mrs. Angel, 
was a sack-maker, and deserves immor- 
tality for her charity toward the starving 
author, trying in vain to refuse a part of 
the little sum he paid her for rent. 

We have only a few episodes from which 
to reconstruct these last tragic days, and 
there is little need to look beyond the 
simple statement that he almost starved, 
proudly refusing such aid as was offered 
him. On the 24th of August he poisoned 

208 



Among Prosperous Folk 

himself, after tearing up the remnants of 
his manuscripts. The poor young fellow 
still lacked three months of being eighteen 
years old, and yet had shown a genius and 
imagination which by some is said to have 
inspired the work of Coleridge. If this 
be so, Chatterton may claim to be the 
literary progenitor of Keats and Shelley 
and their followers. On the 28th of 
August his body was buried as that of a 
pauper in the burying-ground of a work- 
house, which soon after was torn up and 
converted into a market. 



209 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE POET AND PLAYWRIGHT 

It is consoling to know that Goldsmith's 
feeling for Chatterton was such that he 
undoubtedly would have helped him if 
aware of his destitution in time. There 
is a conversation reported as taking place 
at the first dinner of the Royal Academy, 
in which Goldsmith is represented as 
speaking in the warmest praise of the Row- 
ley poems and as defending the authen- 
ticity of these manuscripts which Chatter- 
ton claimed to have unearthed from the 
celebrated old chest. 

Horace Walpole, who had not shown 
much interest in Chatterton when the 
young fellow had come to him seeking his 
patronage, seemed genuinely shocked to 
learn that the despairing poet had come 
to so terrible an end in London. But 

210 



The Poet and Playwright 

Goldsmith apparently stood alone in advo- 
cating the theory that Chatterton had really 
discovered ancient manuscripts. Though 
the weight of opinion is still against Gold- 
smith's view, it would be too much to say 
that his theory has been abandoned. 
Certain commentators believe that be- 
tween the certainly genuine work of Chat- 
terton's pen and that found in the Rowley 
productions there is a wide difference of 
merit. But knowing that some of Chat- 
terton's work was forged, makes us unwill- 
ing to admit the genuineness of any. 

From this advocacy of an unpopular 
theory by Dr. Goldsmith, we may conclude 
that he was independent in his literary 
judgment, and may one day be forced to 
admit him to be right as to the Rowley 
MSS., where most of the world was wrong. 

We have to make up our estimate of the 
man by arguments drawn from minor 
incidents. In 1770 it is a pleasure to learn 
that he considered himself justified in 
taking a little holiday, going for a time to 
the Continent in company with the very 

211 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

delightful Horneck family, the daughters 
of which especially attracted him, one of 
these being the famous "Jessamy Bride." 
Of the trip, as usual, is recorded nothing 
more important than just such minor hap- 
penings as have no greater purpose than 
to serve as hints in judging the doctor's 
character. 

While in Lisle, for example, v^e are told 
that the party stood at a window watching 
some military display, and that the young 
English girls attracted the admiration of 
the smart officers af the garrison. Gold- 
smith is said to have turned away with real m 
or affected petulance, exclaiming that '' 
elsewhere he would get his share of admira- 
tion. After Irving's and Austin Dobson's 
conclusive showing that this remark was 
no more than a piece of pleasant humor, 
it is hardly necessary to comment upon 
the dullness with which it has been taken 
seriously. 

Irving says. "It is difficult to conceive 
the obtuseness of intellect necessary to 
misconstrue so obvious a piece of mock 

212 



I The Poet and Playwright 

petulance and dry humor into an instance 
of mortified vanity and jealous self-con- 
ceit." 

Another story tells how Goldsmith at- 
tempted to jump to an islet in a pond at 
Versailles and how he fell into the 
water. The natural and sensible conclu- 
sion would be that the athletic little doctor 
had been completely lacking in that silly 
dignity which would have prevented a 
foolish man from carrying out the whimsi- 
cal notion to prove by the leap that he was 
still agile and sprightly. 

After his return home we have a few 
equally unimportant anecdotes which time 
is gradually reducing to their true propor- 
tions, and then we come to a brief period 
of hard work, perhaps the beginning of 
his abridgment of the Roman History, 
and certain work upon a not very success- 
ful "Life of Lord Bolingbroke," that was 
probably readable even if it did contain 
a few errors of fact amusing to some 
critics now long since forgotten. 

A visit to Bath followed, wherein oc- 
curred another of the anecdotes that, 

213 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

spread thin, go so far to fill up the biog- 
raphies of Goldsmith; and this also, when 
examined with an unprejudiced mind 
seems far from showing him forth as 
imbecile or absurdly eccentric. 

The story, in brief, tells how the Duke 
and Duchess of Northumberland were 
one day in their breakfast room in the 
house adjoining that of Goldsmith's friend, 
Lord Clare, when they were surprised by 
the entrance of Dr. Goldsmith. He seated 
himself comfortably upon a sofa at one 
side of the room, and engaged affably in 
conversation with His and Her Grace. 
All this took place before breakfast, and 
when the breakfast was served, the noble 
hosts invited their visitor to join them. 
Whereupon he rose, and with every sign 
of embarrassment explained that he 
thought he was in his friend's house and 
not in theirs. 

The vast importance of this happening 
apparently consists in the high nobility 
of his entertainers. There is nothing 
whatever to show that it was not a per- 

214 



The Poet and Playwright 

fectly natural mistake and that Goldsmith 
did otherwise than any gentleman, espe- 
cially when his eyesight was not keen, 
might have done. There was a mistake 
between the adjoining houses — nothing 
more. There would be nothing to excite 
question in the presence of the two English 
people as guests in the breakfast-room of 
their next-door neighbor, and that mistake 
once admitted to be possible, all importance 
vanishes from the story. 

Returning to London, and receiving a 
present of meat from his friendly host, 
Lord Clare, Goldsmith responded by the 
poem named "A Haunch of Venison," 
which was not published until after his 
death. 

In spite of every attempt to dignify this 
doggerel by pointing to his skill in suggest- 
ing that and avoiding the other, one fails 
to find it elevating or enlivening. One 
cannot deny its ease, but to one who had 
for years dipped his living from an ink- 
bottle, that ease should have been a second 
nature. 

215 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

But of vastly more importance than 
these bits of hackwork and pieces of verse 
was his next comedy, which Prof. Masson 
speaks of as being "richer and better 
every way than his first, and, indeed, 
about the best thing of its kind in the Eng- 
lish Hterature of the eighteenth century." 
This play, subsequently named "She 
Stoops to Conquer," he seems to have 
finished before the end of 1771, but it was 
not to appear for over a year. 

His receipts during these later years 
were certainly large enough to have made 
him fairly comfortable — between three and 
four thousand pounds, which may be 
reckoned as equal to over six thousand 
dollars a year, allowing for the decreased 
value of money. This estimate is made by 
Prof. Masson, who says that, notwith- 
standing. Goldsmith was continually in 
trouble for money, and is inclined to find 
the cause in his careless habits and his 
generosity, saying that he left everything 
unlocked in his rooms and gave freely to 
all who asked him, besides contributiQg 

216 



The Poet and Playwright 

in all probability, to the expenses of his 
family. 

The writing of "She Stoops to Conquer" 
was done probably in great part at a farm- 
house out on the Edgeware Road. Here 
Goldsmith had hired a single room and 
boarded with the farmer's family. He 
seems ever fond of country sights and 
scenes, for not only did he retire con- 
tinually to these retreats near London, 
but every now and then made other excur- 
sions still further away, jotting down 
from time to time notes that he afterwards 
used, or meant to use, in his great com- 
pilation "Animated Nature." 

The jests in "She Stoops to Conquer" 
were also said by him to be the fruits of 
hours spent in similar wanderings about 
the countryside, as he speaks of his 
"studying jests with the most tragical 
countenance." 

During the year when the piece was 
lying in Colman's hands, unproduced. 
Goldsmith continued to write pieces of 
no particular importance, such as his 

217 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

''Threnodia Augustalis," a lament over 
the Princess of Wales, and some clever 
bits of epistolary rhyme. 

When Colman was asked to push the 
matter, Goldsmith offering to make the 
necessary revisions, the manager appar- 
ently jumped at the chance for delay, and 
suggested certain changes that caused the 
author to reclaim the play and to turn it 
over to Garrick. From Garrick it was 
reclaimed once more and sent to Colman, 
but, owing to the kind offices of Dr. John- 
son, the manager at last gave a promise to 
produce it. After the usual minor troubles 
about casting the parts, and the prepara- 
tion of a prologue, the play was acted in 
the middle of March, 1773, and had a 
creditable success, bringing its author at 
least as much as he had received from his 
first comedy, and adding even more than 
the first to his reputation as a dramatist. 

To take up the recital of events con- 
temporaneous with these years of Gold- 
smith's life — in 1770, the same year that 
gaw the suicide of Chatterton, were born 

218 



The Poet and Playwright 

Wordsworth and the sculptor Thorwald- 
sen. In the following year, while Gold- 
smith was writing "The Deserted Village/' 
there was born in Edinburgh Sir Walter 
Scott, and Gray and the novelist Smollett 
died. The publications of the year include 
Beattie's poem, "The Minstrel," and the 
first edition of the "Encyclopedia Britan- 
nica." Next year, 1772, came the birth 
of Coleridge and of J. M, W. Turner, and 
the death of Swedenborg. 

The same year, 1772, is also to be re- 
membered as that of the beginning of 
inquiry into affairs in India, an investiga- 
tion that eventually resulted in the taking 
over by the government of all the vast 
structure that had been built up since the 
victories of Lord Clive. To one who 
looks over the history of events now so 
closely thronging one another, it will 
seem to be a time of rapid advance not 
only in material but in political and social 
affairs. We shall note the decision of Lord 
Mansfield in the case of the negro Somer- 
set, to the effect that, touching the soil of 

219 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

the British Isles made any slave a free man; 
we shall see the partition of Poland, and 
comprehend that here was the beginning 
of the aggrandizement of European coun- 
tries that has not ceased to our own day; 
we shall note the extension of canals in 
England, and see in them and their suc- 
cessors, the railways, the internal arteries 
that were to unite the whole of England 
into one nation. We read of Priestley's 
" Observation on Different Kinds of Air," 
and see in his keen inquiries the dawning 
light of modern chemistry. But to a con- 
temporary there was as yet nothing that 
enabled him to choose out of these events 
which were significant for the future and 
which survivals of a dying past. Nor is it 
likely that in estimating the events of our 
own time we can be wiser. 

During the last year of Goldsmith's life, 
from the performance of "She Stoops to 
Conquer," at Covent Garden, to his death 
in the Temple on the 4th of April, to us 
the most important events seem to be 
those that were leading so rapidly to the 

220 



The Poet and Playwright 

American Revolution — the troubles be- 
tween the citizens of Boston and the cus- 
toms officers that ended in the famous 
"Tea Party" in the harbor, and the pass- 
ing of the famous "Port Bill" that aroused 
the other Colonists to a full understand- 
ing of the crisis. 

The most important books of the time 
were perhaps Lord Chesterfield's letters 
to his son, published in the year after the 
death of their author, and Warton's 
criticisms on "English Poetry," a book 
that has not yet ceased to be quoted. The 
only piece of literary work of this year 
from Goldsmith's hand that has re- 
mained well known is his bright epi- 
grammatic poem "Retaliation." 

The origin of this bit of verse is traced 
to a pleasant dinner party, where the 
guests in a spirit of fun were making up 
imaginary epitaphs upon one another; 
and when Garrick's turn came, he re- 
sponded by reciting impromptu his bright 
lines 

Here lies Nolly Goldsmith, for shortness called Noll, 
Who wrote like an angel and talked like poor Poll. 

221 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

Evidently Goldsmith left the party with 
the idea of composing a set of epigrams 
upon his friends after the model of those 
that had been recited at the table. This 
poem occupied his efforts until a few days 
before his death, and shortly afterwards 
was published under the title of "Re- 
taliation." 

It is a very remarkable piece of verse, 
containing a set of exquisite miniatures so 
perfect in finish, so true to life, that they 
are accepted to this day as the best brief 
epitomes of the characters described. 
There is no claim to originality for the 
scheme of the poem; the very first line 
refers the reader to the earlier effort of 
the satirist Scarron. The verse flows 
easily on, and yet without a wasted word 
carves in indestructible lines the members 
of the little gathering of notables that gave 
rise to it. The poem is evidently un- 
finished, which is enough to account for 
the omission of a portrait of Dr. Johnson, 
a lack that every reader may be pardoned 
for lamenting. 

222 



The Poet and Playwright 

To us the chief importance of this 
exquisite piece of descriptive writing is 
the fact that it is a proof that Goldsmith 
appreciated both the faults and the vir- 
tues of the great men who were his daily- 
companions. It is impossible that he 
should have so justly appraised their 
value if he had not been able to measure 
them by his own possession of at least 
some portion of the greatness that char- 
acterized such leaders of men as Burke, 
Johnson, Reynolds, and Garrick. 

Doubtless there must be truth in the 
many concurring testimonies to Gold- 
smith's foibles, but in writing this book 
it has been my attempt to show that these 
less dignified traits of character could not 
have been, even if the most prominent, 
the most significant elements of his charac- 
ter. One is delighted in reading Irving's 
biography to see with what insight that 
kindly author, who is no kindlier than he 
is wise, sympathetically explains Gold- 
smith's love for rich dress. Instead of 
ascribing it to dandyism or to a silly love 

223 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

of attracting attention, Irving believes 
that it was an attempt to counteract the 
deficiencies which long years of suffering 
had made ever present to his conscious- 
ness. Feeling that he was unattractive, 
and even painful to look at, Goldsmith 
desired simply to make the best of himself 
by an appearance of elegance and fashion. 
His whole life shows him to be remark- 
ably unselfish, and many of the faults 
and weaknesses of which he is accused 
could not have flourished without a deep 
soil of unselfishness. 



224 



CHAPTER XV 



IN HIS LAST YEARS 



It is almost labor thrown away to show 
the absurdities of popular traditions, or to 
correct mistaken views about celebrities. 
Samuel Johnson makes a hasty speech in 
regard to some action of Goldsmith's, 
and the world of readers considers itself 
bound to accept this estimate of the affair. 
An incident of the sort occurred in con- 
nection with the representations of "She 
Stoops to Conquer," and the criticisms 
upon the play. 

Ordinarily, Goldsmith paid little atten- 
tion to the envious snarlings of ill-natured 
critics, replying only when he felt he ought 
to clear himself of some imputation on 
his reputation, as in the case of his ballad 
"The Hermit." But when a writer by 
the name of Kendrick, in a letter to the 

225 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

'^ London Packet," not only ridiculed Gold- 
smith's vanity, but hinted that he was 
unable to gain the affections of *'the lovely 

H k," meaning Miss Horneck, the 

"Jessamy Bride," Dr. Goldsmith took 
the only course that seemed to him likely 
to prevent a recurrence of this forerunner of 
"yellow journalism." 

Being ignorant who had written the 
letter. Goldsmith went to the oflGice of the 
publisher, and struck him with a cane. 
This led to a fracas that knocked down a 
lamp, and did little other damage. After- 
ward Goldsmith paid fifty pounds to avoid 
an action for assault. 

For this Goldsmith has been either 
blamed or held up to ridicule; and yet 
the chief reasons alleged are that the fray 
was "undignified," or that the publisher 
had the better of his assailant. Dr. John- 
son was thought clever when he threat- 
ened to buy a "stout oak cudgel" when an 
actor hinted an intention to caricature 
him, and there is no doubt that Gold- 
smith's only motive was to keep the name 

226 



In His Last Tears 

of his friend, the Jessamy Bride, out of 
the scurrilous journals of the time. 

All the scandal-mongers and libellists 
at once fell foul of the plucky Doctor, but 
he paid his money to avoid the suit, and 
Miss Horneck's name suffered no injury. 
In reply to the comments on his conduct 
he wrote a dignified letter that Johnson 
called "a foolish thing well done" — as to 
which there may be two opinions. 

It is a pity that so many of the reminis- 
cent anecdotes come to us filtered through 
the prejudiced mind of Boswell. It seems 
that one may read not only between the 
lines of the Scotch biographer, but among 
some words of the Great Cham himself, 
an ever-present envy of the Irish author. 
Despite BoswelFs bias, it is very plain that 
Goldsmith had the better of Johnson in 
more than one of their word-combats. 

We can see that there must have been 
many reasons for some friction between 
Goldsmith and his associates. He was 
outspoken, impulsive, rash and quick- 
witted, and exceedingly sensitive. John- 

227 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

son was domineering, logical, and ready 
with well-considered dicta upon all sub- 
jects. Naturally enough. Goldsmith's de- 
sire was to keep on good terms with this 
"Great Bear," and to live a quiet life in 
the lee of this great mental and physical 
bulwark. 

But Goldsmith was never subservient, 
and where he could administer a courte- 
ous rebuke to a piece of Johnsonian bump- 
tiousness, he never failed to do so. Recall- 
ing the old fable of the statue of the man 
slaying the lion, we must not forget that 
where Boswell is the sculptor, there is 
every disposition to show the Johnsonian 
lion victor over all he met; and despite 
this disposition the record shows Gold- 
smith in nowise the worse for his contro- 
versies. 

Such are the conclusions to which one 
may be led by reading the many anecdotes 
in which Goldsmith and Johnson, Boswell, 
Garrick, and the rest figure in the great 
biography. We need not transcribe any 
of them, merely bearing in mind that these 

228 



In His Last Tears 

meetings at the Literary Club, at his own 
rooms, or at the tables of one or another 
of his friends, were the hours of recrea- 
tion between the long spells of hard labor 
over the pages of the "Animated Nature,*' 
a work that certainly contained many 
errors, but hardly more than those made 
by men far better equipped for the task. 

Besides the natural history, Goldsmith's 
last years were given to a "Grecian His- 
tory" that appeared about the middle of 
1773, and seems to have brought its author 
no more than a few figures on the credit 
side of the publisher's ledger, since he was 
in long arrears for advances. This was 
due to extravagance, for his earnings 
had for a long period been large enough 
to support him respectably and to dis- 
charge any debts he may have assumed. 

But Goldsmith had no time for regrets, 
nor could he coin repentance into money. 
He must set his busy brain to work, and 
devise some method of gaining larger 
sums from the publishers. The scheme 
he suggested was that he should be editor 

229 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

of various papers written on the Arts 
and Sciences by his distinguished friends 
in London, a sort of Encyclopedia. 

But the plan failed to excite the com- 
mercial enterprise of any publisher, and 
so it was given up. We have some hint 
of the reason in the opinion of the pub- 
lisher Davies, who seemed to think that 
so large a project would be insecurely 
founded upon a disposition so indolent as 
Goldsmith's. The "Popular Dictionary 
of Arts and Sciences," as the project was 
to be christened, never came even to a 
serious beginning, and the distressed author 
was driven to another device to keep credi- 
tors at bay and continue his benevolences. 

In Forster's "Life of Goldsmith" we 
have the text of a letter to Garrick, asking 
an advance of money — really a loan — upon 
the possible profits of a performance by 
Garrick of "The Good-Natur'd Man." 
The wording of the note, the lack of con- 
nection between its sentences, the illogical 
submissive style, and even the hand- 
writing (for a facsimile is given), show a 

230 



In His Last Tears 

nervous unhappiness that proves to what 
straits Goldsmith was reduced. Garrick's 
endorsement seems unkind, being "Gold- 
smith's palaver/' but he lent the money, 
and was duly thanked by another note 
which the actor endorsed with the same 
words. Their inapplication to the second 
note might be taken as indicating that 
their real force is not understood by us. 
The borrower's gratitude wells up in his 
concluding sentence, "May God preserve 
my honest little man, for he has my heart." 
After this episode, Forster tells us that 
there remain but two more pictures in the 
life of the poet, the first showing him as 
sauntering about Vauxhall Gardens in 
the company of Sir Joshua Reynolds, the 
friend in whose presence the Doctor 
seemed to be the happiest. About gay 
gardens are strolling throngs of the nota- 
bilities of London, both men and women, 
in their wigs or strange coiflFures, in ruffles 
and laces, with fans and swords. They 
would be a strange and picturesque set of 
costumed figures to our eyes, but to the 

231 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

painter and the poet their clothes would 
seem an everyday matter, and interest 
would be excited only by individuality of 
face or bearing. 

The other picture shows us this author 
who is so "sensitive to ridicule," so fear- 
ful of lowering his dignity, enacting at a 
friend's house, with the aid of David Gar- 
rick, the parlor comedy known as the 
"Turkish Dwarf" — ^wherein Goldsmith's 
head makes a speech of most serious im- 
port, and Garrick's arms travesty his 
solemnities by the most incongruous ges- 
tures. 

When, as Wendell Phillips says, we read 
history "with our eyes and not with our 
prejudices," we shall be able to see in such 
incidents a complete refutation of the 
foolish accusations against Goldsmith's 
good sense, and a proof that he was not 
greatly different from his fellows. He 
suffers still from the old notion that since 
authorship seems like magic, there must 
be something bizarre in authors. 

After this there is nothing more to tell 
with certainty, though we know that the 

232i 



In His Last Years 

occasion giving rise to the poem " Retalia- 
tion" must have taken place between this 
time and that of the author's last illness. 
We have the words of Garrick to prove 
that the poem was written in good humor, 
and that the epitaphs to which it is a reply 
were intended to provoke just such a mas- 
terly effort. The various accounts differ 
more or less, but excepting Garrick's two 
lines, and Goldsmith's poem, there is not 
much worth the trouble of preserving. 

Upon "Retaliation" the author seems 
to have been busied when his last illness 
came upon him. He had done much of 
his latest work in the cottage on the Edge- 
ware Road, had finished the "Animated 
Nature," and was planning many further 
writings, when the return of an old trouble 
put an end to his labors. At first it seemed 
to be only a minor illness; and when the 
symptoms became less severe, he made 
one more journey to London, though still 
suffering from what, we are told, was "a 
low, nervous fever." Probably he sought 
the city for medical aid, but he is said to 

233 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

have dosed himself against the advice of 
his physicians with a drug that he had 
once found beneficial. 

"Anxieties and disappointments," says 
Washington Irving, "v^hich had previously 
sapped his constitution, doubtless aggra- 
vated his present complaint." No doubt 
it would be quite as true to say plainly 
that he was dying of worry. Johnson 
afterwards wrote to Boswell, "His debts 
began to be heavy, and all his resources 
were exhausted. Sir Joshua was of opin- 
ion that he owed not less than £2,000." 

When we remember the last days of Sir 
Walter Scott, and recall that even his 
superb physique broke under the strain 
of indebtedness he could not pay, we shall 
not be surprised that Goldsmith's physi- 
cians, finding him in a state for which 
no mere physical trouble accounted, and 
asking whether his mind was at ease, re- 
ceived in his last words — "No; it is 
not," the real explanation of his mortal 
illness. 

On the morning of April 4, 1774, he 

234 



In His Last Years 

died, and after some talk of a public 
funeral, was privately buried in the grounds 
of the Temple Church, a few days later. 
This was felt to be more in accordance 
with his circumstances — possibly as better 
befitting one who died heavily in debt, 
and whose property had to be sold at 
auction in the hope of satisfying some 
part of his creditors. 

The place of burial is unknown, and 
for many years the visible monument was 
a medallion by HoUekens, in the Poets' 
Corner of Westminster Abbey. Two years 
after Goldsmith's death. Dr. Johnson 
wrote an epitaph that was submitted to the 
members of "The Club," and by them 
kindly criticised in a "Round Robin," 
that suggested the writing of the epitaph 
in English. Johnson's well-known reply — 
that he would not "disgrace the walls 
with an English inscription" is often 
quoted, and the epitaph with its sonorous 
Latin and its erroneous date of birth still 
adorns the tablet, with stately inappro- 
priateness to its subject. 

235 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

"OLIVARII GOLDSMITH, * 

Poetae, Physici, Historic!, 
Qui nullum fere scribendi genus 

Non tetigit. 
Nullum quod tetigit non ornavit: 
Sive risus essent movendi, 
Sive lacrymas, 
Afifectuum potens at lenis dominator: 
Ingenio sublimis, vividus, versatilis, 
Oratione grandis, nitidus, venustus: 
Hoc monumento memoriam coluit 
Sodalium amor, 
Amicorum fides, 
Lectorum veneratio. 
Natus in Hibernia Forneiae Longfordiensis, 
In loco cui nomen Pallas, 

Nov. XXIX. MDccxxxi.; 

Eblanae Uteris institutus; 

Obiit Londini, 

April IV. MDCCLXxiv.'* 

* The following translation is from Croker's edition of Bos- 
well's "Johnson." The birth-dates are wrong. 

**OF OLIVER GOLDSMITH 

A Poet, Naturalist, and Historian, 

Who left scarcely any style of writing 

Untouched, 

And touched nothing that he did not adorn; 

Of all the passions, 

Whether smiles were to be moved 

Or tears, 

A powerful yet gentle master; 

In genius, sublime, vivid, versatile. 

In style, elevated, clear, elegant— 

The love of companions. 

The fidelity of friends, 

236 



In His Last Tears 

And the veneration of readers, 

Have by this monument honored the memory. 

He was born in Ireland, 

At a place called Pallas, 

OIn the parish] of Forney, [and county] of Longford, 

On the 29th Nov., 1731, 

Educated at [the University of] Dublin, 

And died in London, 

4th April, 1774." 

Though Irving tells us he searched in 
vain for the place of burial, a flat stone has 
since been placed to mark the supposed 
grave, and a fine statue nov^ stands in 
front of Dublin University. 

From Dobson's final chapter v^e may 
quote a fev^ words of description helping 
to bring Goldsmith's personality more 
vividly to mind. "He was short and 
stoutly built," with a pale or sallow com- 
plexion deeply pitted. "His scant hair 
was brown, his eyes gray or hazel," and 
his forehead projecting. Altogether, his 
face was plain, and "bore every trace of 
his unquestionable benevolence." The 
portraits seem to vary from caricature to 
Reynolds's idealized "poetical head," 
which shows the poet without his cus- 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

tomary wig. The original sketch for 
this portrait appears in facsimile as a 
colored plate in The International Studio 
for October, 1906. 

As to his general character, there is a 
conflict of testimony only explicable upon 
the supposition that he was a compound 
of opposites, as, indeed, more than one 
of his biographers and his friends assert. 
In reading of him, we have some under- 
standing of the attraction and repulsion, 
admiration and contempt, expressed and 
exhibited toward him. He made no appeal 
to the world for pity, and never asked more 
than the measure of success given to others 
of the same powers. 

"Goldsmith," declares William Black, 
"resorted to the hackwork of literature 
when everything else failed him, and he 
was fairly paid for it. When he did better 
work, when he ^struck for honest fame,* 
the nation gave him all the honor he could 
have desired." 

It is Black's opinion, and it seems well 
justified, that there is little reason to whim- 

238 



In His Last Tears 

per over Goldsmith's troubles. Instead 
of blaming the author for certain defects 
of character that do not appear to be 
proved by the stories told to illustrate 
them, those who desire to paint his faults 
black may find place for their pigment in 
his reckless extravagance, his careless- 
ness, his gambling — for which there is 
good evidence — and his willingness to 
compete in foolishness with those who had 
longer purses. 

Davies, the bookseller and publisher, is 
quoted by Dobson as saying that Gold- 
smith "had two distinct souls" and was 
"influenced by the agency of a good and 
a bad spirit." But of what man of strong 
character cannot the same be said .? And 
since in the most judicial, as well as kindest 
spirit, Austin Dobson proceeds to make 
up the other poet's debit and credit ac- 
counts, there is little need to go over the 
ground again. It is far better that the 
reader should, with Dobson, retrace the 
steps of Goldsmith's rise from his humble, 
if respectable beginning, to the success 

239 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

that came to him after a very long period 
of drudgery and even of degradation, and 
see how naturally his character is shown 
to be the outcome of his career. 

Most striking is the reminder "Among 
ordinary men he might have shone, but 
his chief associates in later life were some 
of the most brilliant talkers of his own or 
any age," and most valuable Dobson's 
citation of a witness to prove that Gold- 
smith was "a shrewd and eloquent con- 
verser," and his enforcing of the conclu- 
sion by some pages of the Doctor's epi- 
grams and repartees. 



240 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE MAN AND HIS WORKS 

Critics have pointed out that Gold- 
smith's best work, his most creative work, 
is largely reminiscent. For novel, plays, 
or poems alike, he has consulted his memory 
of his surroundings, and has treated those 
phases of life and those types of character 
known to him most intimately. That he 
has nevertheless secured and retained the 
interest of the world for a century and a 
half, proves not only the charm of his pen, 
but also the essential likeness of his times 
to our own. 

No doubt the questions discussed by 
Dr. Primrose, if he lived to-day, would be 
of a different character; no doubt Moses 
would manage to be swindled by sharpers 
whose methods are more fitted to the 
times; but in so far as Goldsmith's char- 

241 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

acters are true to the nature of his own 
times, would they still be true to the nature 
of ours. 

And if we could go backward in the 
stream of time until we found ourselves 
amid the ten years from 1764 to 1774, the 
decade wherein Goldsmith consorted with 
the best men of his time, we should find 
ourselves much more nearly in sympathy 
with his associates than is now possible. 

Under the charm of his writing we see 
him through a rose-colored medium, and 
are impatient of the criticism that found 
the author less delightful than his works. 

We are impatient of Dr. Johnson's "No 
man was more foolish when he had not a 
pen in his hand, or more wise when he 
had," and resent Macaulay's adjectives, 
"vain, sensual, frivolous, profuse, improvi- 
dent." We are inclined also to question 
the right of E. P. Whipple or Leigh Hunt 
to pronounce upon the merits of so great 
a writer, and we turn with a sense of satis- 
faction to the broad, catholic and kindly 
Thackeray for the words that shall do 

242 



The Man and His Works 

Goldsmith justice and pay him due honor. 

In the lecture on the "English Humor- 
ists," where, if anywhere, we shall find 
ourselves reading prose as beautiful as 
Oliver Goldsmith's own, we come with a 
glow of genuine pleasure upon passages 
that touch the heart, and yet have neither 
affectation nor exaggeration. It is Thacke- 
ray who compares Fielding's "high cour- 
age" with Goldsmith's "constancy, equally 
happy and admirable," and tells how the 
poet's "sweet and friendly nature bloomed 
kindly always in the midst of life's storm, 
and rain, and bitter weather." 

No one can rightly know Goldsmith 
except after a glance through those kindly, 
keen-sighted spectacles that were able to 
see truly all the personages and booths of 
"Vanity Fair," and could read rightly both 
the good and evil that made of Steele, 
and Swift, and Sterne, those odd com- 
pounds of genius that could both soar and 
grovel. It does not seem right to cut 
patches out of his great tapestry, but we 
may at least quote from his last paragraph, 

243 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

in the belief that it will send readers once 
more to Thackeray's pages, and to Gold- 
smith's. Who can, so well as Thackeray, 
sum up the charms we owe the Irish 
author — "His humor delighting us still; 
his song fresh and beautiful as when first 
he charmed us with it; his words in all 
our mouths; his very weaknesses beloved 
and familiar — his benevolent spirit seems 
still to smile upon us; to do gentle kind- 
nesses; to succor with sweet charity; to 
soothe, caress, and forgive; to plead with 
the fortunate for the unhappy and the 
poor." 

This appreciation of the greatest Eng 
lish novelist may not be weakened by 
being put to weaker words; but many 
who will be inclined to see in Thackeray 
a spirit much like Goldsmith's, can yet 
not resist the testimony of an intellect so 
keen and so broad in its view as Goethe's. 
They must admit greatness in a novel that 
Goethe declares one of the best ever writ- 
ten, at the same time giving ample reason 
for the faith he declares. Of the same 

244 



The Man and His Works 

book, "The Vicar of Wakefield," William 
Hazlett declared, "It has charmed all 
Europe"; and though we may not agree 
with Washington Irving in claiming that 
there are "no extravagant incidents, no 
forced or improbable situations," yet we 
can heartily endorse William Black's decla- 
ration, "There is as much human nature 
in the character of the Vicar alone as would 
have furnished any fifty of the novels of 
that day or this." 

When we come to the poems, there is 
a difference of purpose between our days 
and his that makes us impatient of what, 
to his contemporaries, seemed their great- 
est claim to praise. The necessity of a 
"moral purpose" to excuse the production 
of poetry, was then universally insisted 
upon, and it seemed to be considered 
much in the light of a disinfectant, or a 
countersign that gave admission to the 
reading public. 

Rightly or wrongly, and perhaps the 
last word upon the subject has not yet been 
said — the fashion has passed away, and 

245 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

we are free to enjoy poetic images, exquis- 
ite lines, or even well-chosen epithets 
without pretending to be investigating the 
''Vanity of Human Wishes" or conduct- 
ing an inquiry into what form of gov- 
ernment conduces most to the happiness 
of mankind. 

In the days of " She Stoops to Conquer," 
Horace Walpole could complain that Dr. 
Goldsmith had written a low farce "tend- 
ing to no moral, no edification of any 
kind"; but if the remark is cited to-day 
the quoter is careful to remind the student 
that the passage is inserted because of " its 
absurdity"! We do not therefore esti- 
mate the worth of "The Traveller" by its 
value as a treatise on political economy or 
a sermon, but as a ''cabinet of exquisite 
workmanship which will outlast hundreds 
of oracular shrines of oak ill put together," 
as Leigh Hunt declared. We read for the 
pictures, and, smiling, put the sermon by; 
or, if we seek the true moral purpose of the 
poem, we read it between the lines, and 
beneath the conventional truths that Gold- 

246 



The Man and His Works 

smith threw as sops to Cerberus, thus brib- 
ing entrance into public favor. 

In the same spirit do we regard the more 
slender basis of ethics upon which he has 
created that more beautiful poem "The 
Deserted Village." If the object of the 
poet was what Irving tells us — to exalt 
agriculture above manufacturing, we can 
only say that Dr. Goldsmith's diagnosis 
does not seem to us sufficiently scientific 
to have led him through symptoms to the 
real cause of the troubles he has so ad- 
mirably described. 

While our age is no time to deny the 
value of a sturdy population of indepen- 
dent citizens, and to dispute the harmful 
effect of "swallowing up small farms in 
wide and useless domains," yet we know 
that the factory system, the modern manu- 
facturing and business world, could not 
be halted because small farms lay athwart 
the paths of commerce, and upon the sites 
of great factories. All this is obvious 
enough; but perhaps the conclusion from 
it is not quite so evident. 

247 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

May we not see, from Goldsmith's 
attempt to misdirect his own genius, to 
make his own little fishes talk like great 
whales, that the poet who preaches politi- 
cal economy or conventional moral truths, 
is merely wasting upon ephemeral things 
the genius that should deal with the eter- 
nal ? The "blossomed furze" is really 
more profitably gay than many a well- 
tended fruit-tree or well-ploughed farm, 
and preaches its own lesson of beauty for 
many a generation after the orchard, the 
farm, and the treatise on political economy, 
are all dead together. The "Auburn" of 
the poem not only is worth more to the 
world than forty Lissoys, but even has the 
power to recreate the village whose end is 
deplored in the "melodious, tender poem, 
the position of which in English literature 
and in the estimation of all who love Eng- 
lish literature has not been disturbed by 
any fluctuations of literary fashion," to 
quote once more from the appreciative 
biography by William Black. 

As to "Retaliation," it has already been 
248 



The Man and His Works 

sufficiently described. We like it none 
the worse that it is as little didactic as a 
collection of exquisite miniatures painted 
upon ivory, and should be glad to have it 
incomplete if its completion v^ould have 
involved some Johnsonian framing that 
put a morally square frame upon each little 
vignette. 

Of the plays, v^e dare do no more than 
refer the reader to the triumphant stage- 
success that makes all criticisms super- 
fluous or impertinent, and ranks the author 
as one of the great English dramatists in 
the field of comedy. 

The compilations, the hackv^ork, the 
penny-a-liner pieces are "dull, habitual 
drudgery," but may be cited to prove his 
excellence of mere workmanship in that 
calling which Anthony Trollope compares 
in his autobiography to that of "an up- 
holsterer and undertaker," called upon for 
distasteful work — "It is his business, and 
he will starve if he neglects it." If con- 
sidered at all in making up our estimate of 
Goldsmith's powers, these works must be 

249 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

judged in connection with the circum- 
stances under which they were produced. 
Dobson says he raised hackwork almost to 
a fine art. They are, so judged, most 
excellent; and bear out Johnson's pre- 
diction that Goldsmith's "Animated Na- 
ture" would be as "pleasant as a Persian 
tale." They were written for a purpose 
and to a standard; they served the pur- 
pose and reached the standard, and in so far 
as they admitted of literary quality, this was 
given them. 

Professor Masson declares that in the 
form and matter of his writing Goldsmith 
was "purposely English"; but this was 
a necessity of the market for which he 
wrote, and should be remembered as a 
proof of adaptability in this Irish author 
whose heart, unlike Boswell's, never turned 
traitor to the land of his birth. 

There is no need to say once more what 
has been so plainly said by his biographers 
— ^that he was to blame for his own mis- 
fortunes. All things considerd, he was a 
successful author during the last ten years 

2^0 



The Man and His Works 

of his life, was admitted to the best society 
of the time, and never deigned to sacrifice 
his ideals for the sake of bread-winning. 
Even the inconsiderate treatment received 
from his associates seems excusable if we 
regard him as presumptuous and vain. 
Irving says, "the blunders of a fertile but 
hurried intellect, and the awkward display 
of the student assuming the man of fash- 
ion, fix on him a character for absurdity 
and vanity which, like the charge of lunacy, 
it is hard to disprove, however weak the 
grounds of the charge and strong the facts 
in opposition to it." 

But when the American critic goes on to 
build up a case that shall show Goldsmith 
longing for domestic life, for a loving wife 
and a home, we do not find ourselves con- 
vinced. We see nothing in his biographies 
to argue even a serious love-affair of the 
sort Irving has in mind. Goldsmith seems 
to have led the life he preferred, and to have 
been most happy when his pen had com- 
pelled the admiration of the little world 
that surrounded him. A comparison of 

251 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

his life with that of Johnson, for example, 
will show a complete difference of attitude 
toward womankind. 

Primarily, Goldsmith was a man's man; 
he loved the society of men, he loved talk, 
dinners, gaming, outdoors. He was kind 
and affectionate to all the world, no more 
so to women or children than to men; he 
relieved distress whenever he could, for he 
had felt it, and suffered in sympathy with 
all who were in trouble. Indeed, it was this 
keen insight by sympathy that made him 
poet, novelist, and dramatist. 

But whatever his life experiences may 
have been, the works of his pen give us 
little reason to think him alive to the femi- 
nine charm that dominates the pages of 
many great writers of English. Thacke- 
ray, Trollope, Charles Reade, William 
Black, George Meredith, Thomas Hardy, 
all exhibit their susceptibility to the divinity 
that doth hedge about a lovable woman. 
They elaborate the heroines, and paint 
them with delight. 

Goldsmith shows none of this special 
252 



The Man anJ His Works 

regard for his woman characters. It may 
be that the change of attitude is one that 
results somewhat from a different way of 
considering the feminine character. But 
even in coming from Goldsmith to Scott, 
the change is not gradual. The writers 
of the nineteenth century have ceased to 
regard the women as secondary characters 
in their novels, plays, or poems. 

If we are to give Oliver Goldsmith his 
rightful place in English literature, we shall 
have to consider him as a writer skilled in 
every branch of his art. As a poet he 
wrote "some of the best familiar verse in 
the language, . . . still among the 
memories of the old as they are among the 
first lessons of the young." As an essayist, 
he must be reckoned among the most de- 
lightful; and when to the two successful 
plays, we add the immortal "Vicar," we 
shall have built up a monument that will 
not be overthrown. 

If he and such as he are for a time sub- 
merged in the flood of the printing-presses' 
abundance, yet we know that it cannot be 

253 



In the Days of Goldsmith 

for long. There is, of course, such a thing 
as literary fashion. In this series of books 
there has been occasion to record the years 
of comparative neglect that left the poems 
of Chaucer unread save by the few; that 
turned aside from the dramas of Shakes- 
peare; the wave of political prejudice that 
almost forgot Milton. We have, even in 
our own time, heard more than one voice 
predicting the early demise of the Waver- 
leys, and the coming of a generation that 
will not care for Dickens, nor open the 
volumes of Thackeray. 

It is inevitable that in the changes of 
taste. Goldsmith will be liable to these 
vicissitudes of popular favor. But all 
literary history is an assurance that cer- 
tain merits are permanent and will always 
attract the readers who see that books of 
worth shall renew their life. 

So far as we are capable of foresight, we 
must believe that Oliver Goldsmith's works 
will always be certain of their place on the 
shelves of those who love English litera- 
ture, and that their claim to that place will 

254 



The Man and His Works 

be the gratitude of long generations of 
readers. So long as his works are justly 
appreciated, there will be no need to quote 
the opinions of critics. They are their 
own best advocates before the court that 
in each age pronounces the verdict of con- 
demnation or awards immortality. 



THE END. 



255 



APPENDIX 



CHIEF DATES RELATING TO GOLDSMITH'S 
LIFE AND WORKS 



DATE 



1728 

1729 
1730 

1731 



1732 



1733 
1734 

1735 



goldsmith's life. 



Birth of Oliver Gold- 
smith, Nov 10. 



Rev. Charles Gold- 
smith to Lissoy. 



Oliver Goldsmith 
learns alphabet. 



Goldsmith at Byrne's 
school. 

Goldsmith has small- 
pox 



OTHER EVENTS. 



Birth of Capt. 

James Cook. 
Discovery of 

Behring Sea. 

Birth of Lessing, 
Death of Steele. 

Frederick, Prince 
Royal of Prus- 
sia, imprisoned. 

Birth of Ed- 
mund Burke. 

Birth of Cowper. 
Birth of George 

Washington. 
Death of Defoe. 
Sextant invented, 
The Pragmatic 

Sanction. 

James Oglethorpe 
sails for Georgia 

Birth of Haydn. 

Birth of Warren 
Hastings. 

Birth of Joseph 

Priestly 
Birth of Wieland 



Paoli's republic in 

Corsica. ; 
Birth of James 

Beattie. 



IjITERARY 
WORKS. 



Chambers' En- 
cyclopedia. 



Pope's 
" ciad." 



'*Dun- 



"Gentleman's 

Magazine" 

published. 



"Poor Rich- 
ard's Alma- 
nac" begun. 



Pope's "Essay 
on Man." 



Linnaeus's 
"System." 



257 



Appendix 



DATE 



goldsmith's life. 



OTHER EVENTS. 



LITERARY 
WORKS 



1736 



1737 
1738 



Goldsmith at GriflBn's 
School, Elphin. 



Birth of Charles Gold- 
smith 



1739 



1740 



1741 

1742 
1743 



1744 



Birth of John Gold- 
smith. 



1745 



Oliver Goldsmith at 
Rev . Patrick Hughes' s 
school, Edgeworths- 
town. 

Catherine Goldsmith 
marries Daniel Hod- 
son. 

Oliver a sizar at Trin- 
ity College, Dublin. 



Porteous Riots, 

Edinburgh. 
Death of Prince 

Eugene. 
Birth of James 

Watt. 

Birth of Gibbon. 

Birth of Benja- 
min West. 

Birth of WiUiam 
Herschel. 

First Wesleyan 
Society in Lon- 
don. 

War with Spain. 
Nadir Shah takes 
Delhi. 

First circulating 
library in Lon- 
don. 

Birth of Boswell. 

Garrick's first ap- 
pearance. 

Death of Savage. 
Birth of Lavoisier. 
Birth of Paley. 
War between 

France and 

England. 

Death of Alex 
ander Pope. 

Wars of Frederick 
the Great. 

Wreck of Spanish 
and French 
fleet. 

War declared 
against French. 

Return of An- 
son's Expedi- 
tion. 

Louisburg Expe- 
dition. 

Battle of Fonte- 
noy. 



Butler's "An- 
alogy." 



Johnson's "Life 
of Savage." 



Birth of Herder 



258 



Appendix 



DATE 



goldsmith's life. 



OTHER EVENTS. 



LITERARY 
WORKS. 



1745 



1746 



1747 



1748 



Death of Rev. Chas. 
Goldsmith. 



1749 



1750 



1751 



1752 



Oliver takes his B.A. 
degree, February 27. 



Oliver rejected by the 
Bishop of Elphin. 



Goldsmith studies law 
and then medicine at 
Edinburgh, 



Death of Swift. 

The Pretender at 
Edinburgh. 

(Time told of in 
Scott's "Wa- 
ver ley.") 

Death of Robert 
Walpole. 

Battle of Cullo- 
den. 



"French and In- 
dian War" in 
America. 

Battle off Finis- 
sterre. 

Birth of Goethe. 
Birth of Fox. 
Peace of Aix la 

Chapelle. 
Death of James 

Thomson. 
France abandons 

the cause of the 

Stuarts. 

Birth of Alfieri, 
Birth of Laplace. 
Birth of Mirabeau 
Birth of Bentham 
Slave trade fav- 
ored in England 

Founding of Hal- 
ifax 

Earthquake i n 
London. 

Birth of R. B. 
Sheridan. 

Clive in India. 

Franklin's Sci- 
entiiic Experi- 
ments. 

"New Style" in 
chronolo gy 
adopted, eleven 
days dropped 
(Sept. 3 to 13 
being omitted). 

Birth of Chatter- 
ton. 



Collins' "Odes" 



Richardson's 
"Clarissa 
Harlowe." 

S m o 1 1 e 1 1 s' 

"R o der i ck 
R a n d o m." 

Thomson's 
"Castle of In- 
dolence." 

Buffon's ' 'Nat- 
ural History" 
(1749-1767). 

Fielding 's 
"Tom Jones." 

Johnson's 
"Rambler." 

Gray's "Elegy" 

The French 

"E n cy cl o- 

&§ di e" by 
iderot and 
others 
(1751-1765). 



259 



Appendix 



goldsmith's life. 



Goldsmith member of 
Medical Society, Ed- 
inburgh. 



Goldsmith imprisoned 
for two weeKs. 

Starts for Continent in 
February. 

Medical student at Ley- 
den. 



Goldsmith leaves Ley- 
den in February. 
Takes degree Bachelor 

of Medicine. 
Travels on foot on the 

Continent. 



lands at 



Goldsmith 

Dover. 
Becomes 

reader, 

perhaps 

player. 
Begins hack writing. 



apothecary, 
usher, and 
a strolling 



OTHER EVENTS. 



Goldsmith reviewing 

for the Griffiths. 
April — begins author. 



LITERARY 
WORKS. 



English actors 
visit the Colo- 
nies. 

Franklin's kite ex- 
periment. 

Riots against 
turnpikes and 
because of high 
price of bread. 

Death of Bishop 
Berkeley. 

Death of Fielding. 

Washington's ex- 
pedition against 
the French. 

Birth of Talley- 
rand. 

Birth of George 
Crabbe. 

End of Quaker 
rule in Penn- 
sylvania. 

Period of the 
poem ' * Evan- 
geline." 

First newspapers 
in Conn, and N. 
Carolina. 

Defeat of Brad- 
dock. 

Lisbon earth- 
quake. 

Beginning 
"Seven Year s ' 

War." 
Black Hole of 

Calcutta. 
Birth of Mozart, 

Kosciusko. 
Birth of Sarah 

Kemble (Mrs. 

Siddons.) 

Execution of Ad- 
miral Byng. 

Battle of Plassey, 
India. 

Pitt, Prime Min- 
ister. 



Richardson's 
"Sir Charles 
Grandison" 
first printed. 



Hume's "His- 
tory of Eng- 
land" begins. 



Johnson's 
"Dictionary." 



Burke's "Es- 
say on the 
Sublime and 
Beautiful." 



Walpole estab- 
lishes the 
"Strawberry 
Hill Press." 



260 



Appendix 



DATE 


OOLDSMITH'a LIFE. 


OTHER EVENTS. 


LITERARY 
WORKS. 


1757 




Death o f Fon- 

tenelle. 
Organization of 

militia. 
Population o f 

Philadelphia, 
13,000; of New 




















York, 12,000. 




1758 


Returns to Milner's 


London Bridge 


Goldsmith's 




school. 


cleared of 


"Memoirs of a 




Rejected at Surgeon's 


houses. 


Protestant." 




Hall. 


Brindley builds 


Johnson's 




Moves to Green Ar- 


Bridgewater 


"Idler." 




bour Court. 


canal. 


Edwards o n 






Birth of Nelson. 


"Original 






Birth of Noah 


Sin." 






Webster. 








First acted dra- 








ma written in 








America. 




1759 


Visited by Dr. Percy, 

by Smollett, and 
Newbery. 


British Museum 


Sterne's "Tris- 




opened. 


tram Shandy." 




Birth of Robert 


Johnson's 






Burns. 


"Rasselas." 






Birth of Schiller. 


Goldsmith's 






Death of Handel. 


"Bee." 
Goldsmith's 






Capture of Ti- 


"Polite Learn 






conderoga. Fort 


ing." 






Niagara and 








Quebec. 








Deaths of Wolfe 








and Montcalm 








in battle o n 








Plains of Abra- 








ham. 








Eugene Aram 








convicted. 








Stocking loom 








improved b y 








Lee. 








Death of Collins. 




1760 


Moves to Wine Office 


Death of George 


Goldsmith's 




Court. 


II. 


"Citizen of 




Edits "Ladies' Maga- 


English Con - 


the World." 




zine. 


quests in India. 


Rousseau's 




Edits "Memories of 


Names first on 


"New Heloise" 




Voltaire." 


street doors. 


Macpherson's 






Black Friars 


"Ancient 






Bridge begun. 


Poetry." 



261 



Appendix 



DATE 


goldsmith's life. 


OTHER EVENTS. 


LITERARY 
WORKS. 


1760 




Accession Georga 

III. 
Population of the 

thirteen Colo- 




















nies, about 








1,700,000. 








Conquest of Can- 








ada completed. 




1761 


Writing *'Vicar of 


Death of Rich- 


Marmontel's 




Wakeiield." 


ardson, novelist. 


"Moral Tales 




First visited by Sam- 


Hostilities with 






uel Johnson. 


Spain begin. 




1762 


Goes to Islington. 


Havana taken. 


Macpherson's 




Sells share in "Vicar." 


Cuba conquered 


"Ossian." 






Manila and Phil- 


W i e 1 a n d ' s 






ippines taken 


"Shakespeare" 






by British, 


Wilkes' "North 






Death of Lady 


Briton." 






M. W. Mon- 


Goldsmith's 






tague. 


"M y s t e r y 






The "Cock Lane 


Revealed." 






Ghost." 


Goldsmith's 






Southwark Fair 


"Citizen of 






suppressed. 


the World" 






Catherine 1 1 , 


in book form. 






Empress o f 


Goldsmith's 






Russia. 


"LifeofNash" 
Rou sse au'3 
"Contrat So- 
cial." 


1763 


' 


End Seven Tears' 

War. 
Birth of Jean 

Paul Richter. 
Birth of Joseph- 

i n e Beauhar- 

nais. 
The "Peace of 

Paris." 
Death of Shen- 

stone. 
Pontiac's C o n - 

spiracy. 
Invention of 

Spinning Jenny. 
"White Boys" in 

Ireland. 




1764 


Lodged in Inns of 


"The Club" 


Goldsmith's 




Court. 


founded. 


"History of 
England." 




ii 


Houses first num- 






bered. 





262 



Appendix 



DATE 



goldsmith's life 



OTHER EVENTS 



LITERARY 
WORKS 



1764 



Incident of selling MS, 
of "Vicar of Wake- 
field." 



1765 



1766 



1767 



Practices as physician, 



Edits • 'Poems for 
Young Ladies." 



Visited by Parson Scott. 



Death of Wm. 
Hogarth. 

Birth of Sir Sid- 
ney Smith. 

Pantheon begun 
in Paris. 

Jesuits suppress- 
ed in France. 

Trial of John 
Wilkes. 

Founding of 
Brown Univer- 
sity. 

Acts to tax Colo- 
nies passed. 

Death of the Pre- 
tender. 

Watt improves 
steam engine. 

Treaty of Paris. 

Isle of Man an- 
nexed. 

Clive, Governor 
Generalof India 

Burke enters Par- 
liament. 

Stamp Act passed, 

Patrick Henry's 
speeches. 

Boston riots. 

"Declaration of 
Rights" in 
America. 

Shakespeare's 
mulberry tree 
cut down. 

Repeal of Stamp 
Act. 

Birth of Malthus. 

Birth of Mme. de 
Stael. 

Weaver's riots 
in England. 

House signs tak- 
en down. 



Death of New- 
bery, publisher. 



Goldsmith's 
"The Travel- 
ler" (pub. 
Dec. 19, dat'd 
1765.) 

Walpole's"Cas- 
tle of Otran- 
to." 

Chatterton's 
first forgery. 

Winckelmann's 
"A nc i e nt 
Art." 



Percy's "Rel- 

iques." 
Johnson's 

"Shakespeare" 

Goldsmith's Es- 
says. 

Goldsmith's 
"Edwin and 
Angelina. 

Blackstone's 
"Commentar- 
ies." 

Lessing's 
"Minna von 
Barnhelm." 



Goldsmith's 
' ' Vicar of 
Wakefield." 

Goldsmith's 
"History o f 
Goody Two- 
Shoes." 

Lessing's 
"Laocoon." 

Goldsmith's 
"Formey's 
History o f 
Philosophy." 

"Tristam Shan- 
dy" finished 
(see 1759). 



263 



Appendix 



DATE 


goldsmith's life 


OTHER EVENTS 


LITERAKT 
WORKS 


1767 


Edits "Beauties of 


Discovery o f 






EngUsh Poesy." 


Otaheite. 






At Islington and Gar- 


C 1 i V e returns 






den Court Temple. 


from India. 

Weavers'and col- 
Uers' riots in 
England. 

Steps toward ab- 
olition of slav- 
ery in Massa- 
chusetts. 

Bill passed for 
raising revenue 
in America. 

Birth of Andrew 
Jackson. 

Birth of Maria 
Edgeworth. 

Hargreave's im- 
provements in 
spinning. 




1768 


"Good Natured Man" 


Death of Sterne. 


Sterne's "Sen- 




produced at Covent 
Garden Theatre. 


Royal Acadeiny 


timental Jour- 




founded, Rey- 


ney." 




Death of Henry Gold- 


nolds, president. 






smith. 


Birth of Char- 






Goldsmith at Brick 


lotte Corday. 






Court Temple, and 
in Cottage, Edgeware 


Birth of Sydney 






Smith. 






Road. 


Regiments sent 

to Boston. 
Wilkes riots. 




1769 


Agrees to write "Ani- 


Birth of Napo- 


Goldsmith's 




mated Nature." 


leon, Wel- 


"Roman His- 






lington, Soult, 


tory." 






Ney, Chateau- 


First Letters of 






briand, John 


"Junius." 






Quincy Adams, 








von Humboldt, 








Thos. L a w - 








rence, Cuvier. 








Watt's steam en- 








gine patents. 








Arkwright's spin- 








ning frame. 








Shakespeare Ju- 








bilee. 








Wilkes troubles 








continue. 





264 



Appendix 



DATE 


goldsmith's life 


OTHER EVENTS 


LITERARY 
WORKS 


1770 


The portrait by Rey- 


Birth of Words- 


Goldsmith's 




nolds exhibited. 


worth. 


"Life of Bol- 




Goldsmith visits Con- 


Wilkes triumphs. 


ingbroke." 




tinent with Horneck 


American duties 


Goldsmith's 




family. 


repealed, ex- 


"Life of Par- 




Death of Goldsmith's 


cept on tea. 


nell." 




mother. 


"Boston Massa- 


Goldsmith's 




Goldsmith's visit to 


cre." 


"Deserted 




Lord Clare. 


Bruce discovers 


Village." 






source of the 


The "Junius 




' 


Nile. 


Letters" 






Death of Chat- 


trials. 






terton 








Birth of Thor- 


Literary prop- 
erty declared 






waldsen. 








defendable in 








Court of 








Chancery. 


1771 


The Royal Academy 


Birth of Sir Wal- 


Goldsmith's 




dinner. 


ter Scott. 


Prologue t o 






Death of Gray. 


"Zobeide." 






Death of Smollett 


Goldsmith's 






Arkwright's sec- 


"History o f 






ond patent for 


England" (in 






spinning. 


new form.) 

"Encyclopedia 

Britannica." 


1772 




Partition of Po- 


Goldsmith's 






land. 


"Threnodia 






Mansfield's slav- 


Augustalis." 






ery decision. 


Goldsmith's 






Birth of Coleridge. 


"R o m a n 






Warren Hastings 


History" 






Governor o f 


abridged. 






Bengal. 


"Letters of Ju- 






Death of Swed- 


nius continue. 






enborg. 








Birth of J. M. W. 








Turner. 








Cook's Second 








Voyage 








Priestley's chemi- 








cal discoveries. 




1773 


"She Stoops to Con- 
quer" at Co vent Gar- 
den Theatre. 


Johnson visits 


K lop stock's 




Scotland. 


"Messias" 




Body of King 


completed 






Edward I. ex- 


(1745-1773) 






humed. 


(some author- 






Death of Chester- 


ities say it 






field. 


was finished 
In 1769). 



265 



Appendix 









LITERABY 


DATE 


goldsmith's life 


OTHER EVENTS 

Building of Eddy- 


W^ORKS 


1773 










stone Light 








House. 








First Asylum for 








Deaf and Dumb 








Jesuits' Society 








abolished b y 








Pope. 








Birth of Metter- 








nich. 




1774 


••Retaliation written." 


Boston "Tea 


Chesterfield's 




April 4. death of Oliver 


Party." 


"Letters." 




Goldsmith. 


Boston "Port 


Warton o n 






Bill." 


"English 






FrankUn peti- 


Poetry." 






tions Parlia- 








ment. 








Prisons Act pass- 
ed. 
Birth of Robert 














Southey. 





266 



Appendix 



A BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY 

FOR YOUNG READERS OP GOLDSMITH. 

Life of Goldsmith. The fullest biography is that by 
John Forster, also the biographer of Charles Dickens. 
This tells not only the story of Goldsmith's life, 
but goes into endless disquisitions, surmises, and 
possibilities. While it is perhaps the best for 
reference, it makes the reader impatient by its 
needless fullness, and its dogmatic tone. Besides 
the original full edition, there is an abridgment, 
edited by Roger Ingpen, and published in America 
by Frederick A. Stokes. This shortened form is the 
better, but neither is so readable or so well done 
as the lives by Irving and by Dobson. All the 
biographies are based on one, published in 1837, 
by James Prior, but much has been learned since. 

Life, by Irving. A most charming piece of literary 
work, not only because of the author's exquisite 
style, but because of his sound judgment and 
scholarly taste. In every way the best biography 
through which to begin acquaintance with Oliver 
Goldsmith. 

Life, by Austin Dobson. This work is also excellent, 
written with careful skill, and with fullest regard 
to Goldsmith's literary career. A practical, sound 
helpful work, treating the facts of Goldsmith's life 
in true proportion — and in this respect, the best. 

Life, by Macaulay, in the Encyclopedia Britannica. 
In much the same style as Macaulay's Essays, — 
sensible, unenthusiastic, argumentative, but ex- 
ceedingly readable. It should be corrected by the 
statements of later writers. 



267 



Appendix 

Life, by William Black. This biography, by the 
novelist, also presents a rather unsentimental, fair 
minded view, but gives full space to Goldsmith's 
writings, considered at the time and in connection 
with the circumstance of their appearance. Alto- 
gether a manly, sensible biography that encourages 
the reader to do his own thinking, and warns him 
against the prejudices of other biographers. 

Boswell's Johnson. It is hardly necessary to advise 
even the young reader that by reading the life of 
Dr. Johnson he will gain the clearest possible picture 
of Goldsmith's life in London, and become inti- 
mately acquainted with the friends of his prosperous 
days. Then, if one wishes more minute information, 
he should read in the lives of these men (in North- 
cote's Life of Reynolds, for example) or in the mass 
of literature to which Boswell's work has given rise. 

The Works of Goldsmith. Again I must recommend 
to the student the Globe Edition, as the most com- 
pact and carefully edited. The volume on Gold- 
smith has a well condensed life of the poet by 
Professor David Masson, and gives the most im- 
portant works at a most reasonable price. 

There is rlso a handy volume, thin paper, edition pub- 
lished in the Newnes series of classics, most portable, 
and very dainty. 

As to the "Vicar of Wakefield," "The Traveller," and 
"The Deserted Village," there are simply hundreds 
of editions, in every kind of binding, illustrated 
and annotated, or with the text only. It is impos- 
sible to specify these; but the student should at 
least see the edition of the "Vicar" illustrated by 
Mulready — which is a masterpiece of illustration. 

268 



INDEX 

Acadia, 81. 

"Adventures of a Strolling Player," 88. 

American literature, 123. 

Animated Nature, 217, 229 233. 

"Art of Poetry," 132. 

Arkwright, Richard, 190. 

Athlone, 10. 

Auburn village, 5. 

authorship, 94. 

Bagnigge Wells, 188. 

Ballymahon, 43. 

"Beauties of English Poesy," 17& 

"Bee, The," 59, 123. 

Black, William, 128, 238. 

Blackstone, William, Sir 197. 

"BoHngbroke, Life of," 213. 

Boswell, 138, 228. 

Braddock's expedition, 80. 

"British Magazine," 127. 

British Museum, 65, 66. 

Bryanton, Bob, 51, 69. 

Burke, Edmund, 20, 25, 110, 134, 163, 183 

Byng, Admiral, 96. 

Byrne, Thomas ("Paddy,") 7, 8. 

Byron, Captain, 187. 

Calcutta, Black Hole of, 97. 
Campbell, Mr., 10. 
"Castle of Otranto," 159. 
character of Goldsmith, 239. 
Chatterton, 64, 158, 207, 208. 
Chesterfield's letters, 221. 
Churchmen, 35, 39. 
"The Citizen of the World," 127. 

269 



Index 

Clive, Robert, 61, 163. 

"Cock Lane Ghost," 131, 158. 

coffee-house, 112. 

Colman, 193. 

Columbia College, 75. 

color-blindness, 45. 

Contarine, Thomas, 17, 25, 37, 46, 49, 51, 67, 76, 87. 

Cook, Captain, 188. 

"Cook's Voyages," 188. 

Cork, 47. 

costume, 106, 143. 

Craik, G. R., 176. 

Crompton, 190. 

college rows, 26. 

dandyism, Goldsmith's, 54, 223. 

Dartmouth College, 204. 

Davies, 175, 230, 239. 

debts. Goldsmith's, 234. 

Delap, Elizabeth, 7. 

"Deserted Village," 204. 

Dictionary, Johnson's, 83. 

Diderot, 79. 

Dobson, Austin, 150, 153, 195 205, 239. 

dress, Goldsmith's, 131. 

Dupleix, 62. 

earnings, Goldsmith's, 132. 

East India Co., 185. 

Edgeworthstown, 10. 

Edinburgh, 51, 55. 

"Edwin and Angelina," 155. 

Eighteenth Century, tiie, 102. 

Eldon, Lord, 64. 

Elphin, 9. 

Encyclopedia Britannica, 219. 

English and French in America, 72. 

epigram, Garrick's, 221. 

essay, the, 58. 

Essays, 156. 

"Evangeline," 81. 

Farr, Dr., 91. 

"Fiddleback," 48. 
Fielding, Henry, 56, 74. 

270 



Index 

Fontenelle, 79. 

Francis, Sir Philip, 197, 198. 

Franklin, Benj., 61, 63, 74, 81. 

French, the, 78. 

French and English, 120, 121. 

French fashions, 108. 

gambling, 50, 69. 

Garrick, David, 126, 173, 206, 221, 230. 

George III., accession, 126. 

Goldsmith, Ann Jones, 1. 
Catherine, 16. 
Charles, 113. 
Dean, 50. 
Henry, 6, 29, 32, 41, 43, 50, 201. 

Goldsmith, Oliver, 

descent, 1; birthplace, 2; schooling, 7, 9; 
his father, 5; smartness as a child, 10; founda- 
tion incident of "She Stoops to Conquer," 
14; to Trinity College, 17; college incidents, 
19 et seq.; translator, 22; indolence, 23; as a 
student, 24; ballad making, 25; college rows, 
26; disciplined, 27, 28; decides to emigrate, 
28; returns to Trinity, 29; his charity, 29; 
takes his degree, 31; choosing profession, 38; 
the church, 40; at Ballymahon, 43; rejected 
by the Bishop, 44; tutoring, 46; second emi- 
gration project, 47; advised to study law, 49; 
gambles away his money, 50; resolves to be a 
doctor, 50; goes to Edinburgh, 51; his dress, 
54; goes abroad, 67; the arrest, 67, 72; for- 
eign trip, 70; student at Leyden, 73; walking 
tour, 75; degree M.D., 77, 79; his return, 
79, 86; enters London, 87; vagabond life, 90; 
tutor, 90; attempts to make a living, 91; be- 
gins as author, 93; a reviewer, 94; reviews 
Burke, 110; discharged, 111; two years of 
hackwork, 113; seeks office in Indian Service, 
113; writing for "The Bee," etc., 123; rejected 
as surgeon, 124; "Citizen of the World," 127; 
Johnson at dinner, 131; out of health, 132; 
the Literary Club, 134; methods of work, 145, 
146; character, 148; his essays, 156; resumes 
medical practice, 156; the Good Natur'd Man, 

271 



Index 

172, 175, 193; minor works, 176; overtures 
from government, 185; dandyism, 193; dis- 
appointed by his play, 194; furnishings, 196; 
"shoemaker's holidays," 199; the Deserted 
Village, 204; dandyism, 205; appointed Pro- 
fessor to Royal Academy, 206; opinion of 
Chatterton, 211; visits Europe, 212; anecdotes 
of trip, 212, 213; visits Bath, 213; "She 
Stoops to Conquer," 216; his earnings, 216; 
"Retaliation," 220; punishes libeller, 226; 
plan for an encyclopedia, 230; acts the "Turk- 
ish Dwarf," 232; his last days and debts, 234; 
death, 235; epitaph, 235; statue, 237; ap- 
pearance, 237; character, 239. 

"Good Natur'd Man," 172, 175, 193. 

"Goody Two Shoes," 133. 

Gray's "Elegy," 61. 

Griffiths, 94, 124, 125. 

"Grecian History," 229. 

Green Arbour Court, 112. 

"Grub Street," 112. 

Halifax founded, 59. 

Hanway, Jonas, 111. 

Hargreaves, 190. 

Harrison, Frederic, 102. 

"Haunch of Venison, A," 215. 

Henry, Patrick, 163. 

"Hermit, The," 168. 

"History of England," 133. 

"History of Philosophy," 176. 

Hodson, Daniel, 16. 

Hogarth, WilHam, 105, 106, 134, 139, 140, 159. 

Holberg, Baron, 71. 

Horneck, Miss, 226. 

Howitt, William, 2, 5. 

Hume, David. 74. 

"Idler, The," 123. 

Indian Empire, 61. 

Irving, Washington, 3, 20, 234. 

Islington, 133, 135 

jail fever, 60. 

2^^ 



Index 

"Jessamy Bride," 212, 227. 

Johnson, Samuel, 131, 134, 137, 138, 151, 162, 170, 

172, 226. 
Jones, Ann (Goldsmith), 1. 
"Junius," 197. 

Kendrick, 126, 226. 
Kilkenny, West, 3. 

"Laocoon," Lessing's, 180. 

Lisbon earthquake, 83. 

Lissoy, 3, 4, 32. 

Literary Club, 134, 150. 

literary work, laws of, 146. 

London, 104. 

London Bridge, 113, 115. 

lotteries, 66. 

Louvain University, 77. 

Macaulay on Pitt, 118. 

magazines, 166. 

magnetism studied, 97. 
"Man in Black," 5, 128. 
Martin, St., 30. 
Masson, Prof., 13. 
"Mecklenburg, History of," 131. 
"Memoirs of a Protestant," 122. 
Methodism, 39, 42, 96. 
Milner, Miss, 92. 
Milton, John, 22. 
minstrels, Irish, 17, 18. 
monument, Goldsmith's, 235. 
Montaigne, 108. 
morals, 107. 
musical glasses, 167. 
names put on doors, 126. 

"Nash, Life of," 133. 

Newberry, John, 126, 132, 137, 171, 186, 

Newberry, Francis, 135. 

"New Style," 62-. 

novel, the English, 33, 55. 

numbering houses, 159 

O'Carolan, Turlogh, 17. 

273 



Index 



Pallas, 2. 

Pallas more, 2. 

Pennsylvania, 83. 

Percy, Dr., 125, 130. 

periodicals, 109. 

Phillips, Wendell, 232. 

Pitt, William, 115, 118. 

Pittsburgh, 116, 117. 

Plassey, Battle of, 97. 

"Poetry for Ladies," 176. 

poetry, change in style, 57. 

poetry, state of, 154. 

Poland, 220. 

population, growth of, 101, 103, 116. 

portrait of Goldsmith, 238. 

Priestley, 220. 

Primrose, Dr., 5. 

Prior's recollections, 129. 

"Public Ledger," 127. 

Quebec, 118. 

"Rambler," Johnson's, 58. 

"Rasselas," 125. 

Reade, Charles, 12. 

"Reliques of Ancient Poetry," 130, 162. 

Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 134, 138, 192. 

"Retaliation," 221. 

Richardson, Samuel, 56, 91, 95. 

Robertson, William, 203. 

"Roman History," 175. 

"Rowley poems," 211. 

Salisbury Square, 111. 

Scotland in Goldsmith's time, 69. 

Scott, Parson, 185. 

Scott, Sir Walter, 219. 

sedan chairs, 106. 

Seven Years' War, 96. 

Shakespeare's Jubilee, 202. 

"She Stoops to Conquer," 216, 217. 

slavery, 219. 

Sloane, Sir Hans, 65. 

smallpox, 9. 

274 



Index 

Smollett, 56, 110, 125. 

"Spectator, The," 58. 

Stamp Act, 163, 182. 

"State of Polite Learning," 122. 

statue of Goldsmith, 237. 

steam engine, 159. 

Sterne, Lawrence, 125. 

teaching as a profession, 93. 
Temple, the, 195. 

Temple Exchange Coffee House, 112 
textile manufacture, 190. 
Thackeray, 33, 140, 141. 
Thames, the, 114. 
Thomson, James, 57. 
traffic, street, 105. 
"Traveller, The," 79, 152. 
Trinity College, 17, 19. 
"Tristram Shandy," 125, 169, 187 
TroUope, Anthony, 147. 

"Vicar of Wakefield," 88, 135, 164, 165, 167, 176, 

178. 
"Voltaire, Life of," 125. 
Voltaire, 78, 96. 

Wakeman, Dr., 40, 42. 
Wallis, Captain, 187. 
Walpole, Horace, 211. 
Wanderwash, 121. 
Warton, Thomas, 221. 
Washington, George, 73. 
watermen, the, 115. 
Watt, James, 160. 
"Waverley," 32. 
Wesley, 141. 
Westminster Bridge, 60. 
Whitefield and Wesley, 35. 
Whyte, Lawrence, 18. 
Wilkes, John, 203. 
Wine Office Court, 128. 
Wordsworth, 219. 

"Year of great babies" (1769), 202. 

275 



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